Little Talks
by Conan15
Summary: Songfic of various moments in Finnick/Annie and Katniss/Peeta's relationships, based on the books. I do not own The Hunger Games by Susan Collins or "Little Talks" by Of Monsters and Men
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! Hey! Hey!**

**I don't like walking around this old and empty house**

**So hold my hand, I'll walk with you, my dear**

"**Hey! Hey! Hey!**" The press called as Annie Cresta the most recent victor of the Hunger Games walked by on her way from her interview with Caesar to the train that would take her home to District Four. Seemingly ignoring them she continued walking beside her mentor, Capitol heartthrob and the victor of the 64th Hunger Games, Finnick Odair. She continued with her forward motion until one leapt in front of her startling her and earning a growl from her mentor as he knew how hurt she felt and how she couldn't deal with this guy and neither could he but he had to for her sake, to protect her even though it hurt.

"Are you really as mad as they say?" The reporter blurted out not caring that he had clearly startled the girl or that the question was extremely personal and unbelievably rude to ask anyone, but this was the Capitol, why should Finnick expect anything else? None of them here knew the first thing about treating other groups of people as being human and having feelings, just look at what they do with their Hunger Games competitions. Annie leapt back after the reporter had appeared and had seemingly not even heard the question but was even more startled just by his sudden appearance and the bright blue skin, shining orange tattoos and spiked black hair. Her sea green eyes blinked rapidly and her black curls shook as the rest of her did in fright. Finnick's similar sea green eyes took in her fear and stepped in front of her in an attempt to shield her from the reporter's view.

"She's not mad!" He exploded with a harsh rebuke in the form of yelling and putting his face right in front of the reporter's with his bronze curls bouncing every which way. Taking a deep breath the mentor forced himself to take a deep breath so that he would calm down and none of their families would be harmed in response to his outburst. Gritting his teeth he replied to the man's question with a much calmer voice and put on a big fake smile, the same one he wore to every capitol event, "She's not mad, sir, just in a state of shock I suppose. I too am a victor of the Hunger Games and it is very difficult to wrap one's head around whatever way you look at it from the 23 others dying around you to the shock of realizing you are the only one left. Well needless to say it is quite shocking, now if you will please excuse us we have a train to catch to District Four and from what Iris says we are running on a very tight time table." Pushing past the crowd, Finnick could imagine the look on Snow's face as the President saw that here was another person Finnick was determined to protect, another person Snow could use against him.

Pushing these terrifying tendrils of thought away, the young man pushed through the rest of the crowd to the train praying that Annie was following and nobody else made the mistake of messing with her. Stepping onto the train he turned around and offered a tan hand to the girl to help her on the train. As she took his out stretched hand he could feel her hand so small and shaky inside of his and then he knew that no matter what Snow would retaliate with he had to protect this girl no matter the cost. Letting go of her hand as the doors closed the boy started down the hall and wasn't too far along when the train lurched to a start before gaining speed as the girl whimpered at the original sound.

Turning around he walked back to where the girl lay curled up on the ground with both of her hands over her ears and her sea green eyes squeezed shut in fear as she tried to hold herself together through the undeniable onslaught of memories from the games. By the time he'd crouched down to her level he could see her mumbling unheard words and knew that the only thing he could do was hold her close and whisper calming words so that's what he did. He sat down beside her and helped her into a seated position before wrapping a warm arm around her and whispering over and over again, "It's okay, you're safe." He continued with this statement even though he knew it was a lie and neither of them would ever truly be safe despite false promises that this would be so. About twenty minutes later the girl had calmed down enough for him to take her by the hand and lead her to the dining area where Iris, their Capitol representative, and Mags, his mentor, were awaiting their company.

A few hours later, during which Finnick and Mags successfully managed to coax a little food down the girl's throat along with a little water to wash it down, the group arrived to the screaming of its citizens as they welcomed them home. Annie was so freaked out by all the noise that Finnick again was forced to step in front of her and protect her from the world. After saying a few words and getting Mags to speak in Annie's place, he led the girl to Victor's Village where her family awaited her unbeknownst of her condition.

"This is your new home Annie." Finnick grinned as he theatrically gestured to the big house jokingly while at the same time carefully watching her eyes glance around wide as those of a deer in headlights. Walking inside she spotted her parents who were startled by the change in their daughter despite Finnick's parent's warnings that no one ever enters the games and comes out the same. There was a sword on the wall left by its previous occupant who had died quietly of old age a few years prior and was viewed by the rest of Victor's Village as one of the lucky ones, not many made it to old age or got to pass away painlessly in their sleep. Catching sight of this sword, the girl screamed which scared the Crestas to the point that Mr. and Mrs. Odair had to drag them into the kitchen while Finnick's older brother Mako snatched the sword off the wall and followed his parents into the kitchen. Again leaning down to her level Finnick soother the girl with the same words he'd used on the train and was relieved when she relaxed and saw that the weapon was gone. She still turned to him for confirmation that she was safe now and he nodded before standing up and offering her a hand, "Would you like to see the rest of your new home? It's one of the only perks of being a victor."

"**I don't like walking around this old and empty house**." The girl told him in a whispered voice that was hoarse from lack of use as these were the first words the girl had spoken since leaving the arena. The sound of her voice comforted him because it revealed that there was still someone inside fighting to get out of that traumatized shell.

"**So hold my hand, I'll walk with you, my dear**." Finnick promised with that flirtatious ending coming naturally after having spent five years working on being someone he was not to protect those he loved. She nodded ignoring this and took his hand allowing him to lead her the whole way around without another episode. It was quite some time before he or anyone else heard her voice again but Finnick did not despair though many others did because that voice had reminded him that there was still a life inside that broken girl fighting to break free. Even then, though he was unawares, he was already beginning to fall for this broken girl.


	2. Chapter 2

**The stairs creak as I sleep, it's keeping me awake**

**It's the house telling you to close your eyes**

Nightmares had plagued her night after night since the games had ended months ago but they still haunted her sleep and made it impossible for her to ever truly relax. Whether it was the images of her killing the boy from District One, apparently discovering his name hadn't changed how she viewed him and he would never be Marvel just the boy from District One, to the other deaths in the arena from Cato with all his terrible attacks yet his painfully horrific death at the mouths of the mutts to little Rue who she hadn't been able to save like she had Prim. On other nights it was the brutal deaths of all those she loved from Prim, her mother, Peeta, Gale, Gale's family, Cinna, and even Haymitch some nights mostly all at the hands of President Snow as she was forced to look on or even worse at her own unwilling hands as the scent of roses and blood wafted by and Snow's laughter reverberated around her skull as she screamed. Very rarely but even now the death of her father would come to her and she'd wake up from her childhood nightmare shaking and sickened by her relief that it wasn't a dream connected to the Games in anyway. She was sickened by the person she'd become, the one that felt relieved at the images of the death of her father and knowing that she was so traumatized and that this was never going to go away. At the same time as she was suffering from these nightmares so was every victor before her including her partner and fellow victor of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, Peeta. The only reprieve she and he both had managed to have in the months following the Games had been on the train when she was curled up in his arms and the two held each other close, two broken creatures made whole for just a moment by one another's presence. Could Peeta help her fend off those nightmares tonight?

She glanced up at the young man who had grown up since the eleven year old boy with the bread who had saved her many years before she ever could truly rationalize how much he could mean to her. Taking in every detail of his face as his warm arms held her tight seemed only reasonable if not rational as her Seam gray eyes looked up at his blue eyes focusing not on her face but the next step on the stairs as his blonde curls bounced up and down and his Capitol-manufactured leg clanked on each step. Upon reaching the top stair of her home Katniss Everdeen ignored the sleep syrup weighing her down and gripped tighter to the familiar fabric and smell of flour, wood smoke from the fire, and oil pants that left markings on his hands and clothing. Noticing her tightening fingers the young man looked down at her with his eyes brimming with questions. Mumbling the girl answered those questions but with her face still pressed into his shirt he heard none of it.

"What was that sweetheart?" He asked with a well meaning smile and a comical reminder of Haymitch's old nickname for her.

"Stay with me?" She asked pushing away the sleepy tendrils of thought that came from the sleep syrup and distracted her from her mission to get Peeta to stay with her tonight, to keep the nightmares at bay.

"Always." He promised as he placed her gently on the familiar bed and carefully tucked her in like she was just a small child again. Collapsing into the corner chair that had been brought in there by Prim when she wished to talk to Katniss immediately following the Games, the boy waited for her to fall asleep. After a good half hour of this waiting for the fluttering eyelids of the girl on fire to close in much needed sleep Peeta grinned at the girl and inquired with a chuckled, "Not sleepy yet, Katniss? Even with that sleep syrup?"

"No," She replied and then paused looking for an intelligent and believable excuse for the undeniable need she felt for his comfort that night as the menacing tendrils of doom began to flit throughout her subconscious like demons given free rein to terrorize and burn her in any way they could. Instead of just admitting to that fear and the nightmares and her need for the broken boy to come join her, the broken girl, so that they could for once feel whole, Katniss muttered a lame excuse, "**The stairs creak as I sleep, it's keeping me awake**. Will you come over here and hold me so that I don't have to think about it?" The boy chuckled and stretched out atop the covers beside her.

"There's no need to be bothered by that Katniss, **it's the house telling you to close your eyes**." He grinned as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and planted a light kiss on her forehead. A minute or two after he was beside her, Katniss was able to finally relax and soon her gray eyes closed as she drifted off and felt the boy beside her relax too. She was nearly asleep and was teetering on the edge of consciousness when she heard Peeta whisper in a sleep filled voice of his own, "Sweet dreams girl on fire."

The next morning she awoke to the absence of the boy with the bread and momentarily panicked until she rationalized that he had just awoken earlier than she and had gone home to go grab a change of clothes. Within another minute she had also realized that it was the first night since the train no phantoms of death had come to visit her and she'd had a blissfully dreamless sleep. It really was all thanks to Peeta then, the boy with the bread, meaning she truly was in his debt again but for the first time she could care the less about favors and returning them, just that she needed him and he needed her and for the time being it was obvious that it was not possible to live without the other.


	3. Chapter 3

**And some days I can't even trust myself**

**It's killing me to see you this way**

As a rule Peeta preferred to know exactly what was true and what was not, a condition mostly due to his time at the hands of the Capitol following the Quarter Quell. While there he had been tortured through a process known as hijacking and involving a change in content of his memories of events through tracker jacker venom. The person who had been vilified the most by these changes was the girl currently standing beside him waiting for him to take his seat at her dinner table so that they could eat. Her face was the face that comforted him the most prior to his abduction and now it brought fear to his heart, not fear of those gray eyes, tan skin, or the dark brown locks that used to cascade down to her lower back but now just touched her shoulder blades but rather fear of hurting her. Just thinking about his abduction had led to a memory resurfacing as the flashback reached him causing his pupils to dilate hiding the blue of his eyes and he gripped the back of his chair for dear life.

The shiny memory took over every part of his mind and he was forced to watch as evil flickered across the gray eyes of the girl he'd loved for years and she volunteered upon realizing that he had been chosen for the Games. Pushing her little sister (the one some small part of his brain knew that she loved more than her life itself) down and out of the way she stalked up to him like a hunter who knew that her prey was helpless at her hands but instead of ending it quickly lengthened its suffering. When Effie requested that he shook hands with this mutt he heard her lean forward and whisper in his ear, "I'm going to kill you slowly and painfully." This was followed by a cackle of a laugh which reverberated around his skull even after the shiny memory faded away and he was left with just seeing red. Calming slightly as the caged part of his mind fought to protect the girl beside me and stop him before he did something stupid, he managed to turn his head and look at her.

"You entered the Games to kill me, real or not real?" His voice challenged her and his narrowed eyes watched as the gray eyes widened at the suggestion before she shook her head with her ringlets bouncing.

"Not real." Her response calmed him some until another memory threw itself to the forefront of his thoughts that lacked the shiny quality that all the hijacked memories had. It showed a girl gently feeding him soup and trying to take care of his mutilated leg. When her first aid attempts failed she distracted him with tales to keep him awake and served as a nurse while his pain wrecked body looked on. A nurse who kissed him after he told her how long he'd loved her for, a nurse who risked her life for his and nearly bled to death. That memory left as quickly as it had come and was replaced by another when he, while feigning sleep, had overheard her and Finnick discussing that he needed to live and he heard the underlying tones in her familiar responses that gave away that she would give her life to save his.

"You saved my life in the Games and were ready to sacrifice yours for mine during the Quarter Quell, real or not real?"

"Real." When she replied with the word he was dying to hear he was brought back to earth and remembered where he was. He was so close to her, arms length in fact, if he had lost it, truly lost it, he could have killed her. Leaping away from the table he crashed into the wall behind him and fell to his knees, his prosthetic giving out. She stepped towards him concern knit into her brow and reflected in her Seam eyes with a confused frown on her face, "What's wrong Peeta?"

He struggled to put what he felt into words as she stood there still concerned before crouching down to his height and he curled into himself trying to form the words to tell her stay back, that he could hurt her, but his lips betrayed him and he remained silent watching as the patchwork of skin and scars on her hands and neck reached out to him. The patchwork of skin reminded him of how she was just as broken as he was, how she had lost just as much, and had been forced to watch the horrors of her sister, Prim, being blown up before her eyes or Finnick being eaten alive by the mutts in the sewer with his once so full of life and love sea green eyes begging to die, begging for the end. Suddenly the words came in a flood as he backed up a little further away his feet slipping on the wood floor as he was again filled with fear of losing it and hurting the girl who had been hurt far too much by those she loved.

"The memories and flashbacks, they come and go, **and some days I can't even trust myself** around you Katniss. You should be afraid of me; I could hurt you, I could kill you!" He could feel his eyes filling with tears, unshed tears from all the deaths, from the torture, and from thinking that he'd hurt her oh so many times. The old Katniss would not have dealt well with this, she was the sort who had run away from emotions and feelings she did not want to deal with or did not expect like this violent outburst from the boy with the bread whom she'd finally fallen for during the Quarter Quell over a year ago. Today the girl surprised him by not running away but rather ignoring his attempts to keep her away moved forward and took both of his hands in hers.

"Yes you could kill me Peeta, but I am not afraid of you and know that I shouldn't be. **It's killing me to see you this way** more than its scaring me. You have changed so much from the eleven year old boy who threw me that bread but that boy is still in there somewhere and I care too much about him to let him go." The young man froze in shock, she still cared for him? He had become a monster and she still saw enough good in him to want to help him? She had seen him turn, and yet she was not scared?

"You are not afraid of me, real or not real?" He asked. Instead of responding she moved forward enough to be face to face with him before crashing her lips to his for a real kiss, the first that wasn't motivated by a desire to release him from his hijacked state.

"Real, that is real too." She breathed out as they separated to catch a breath and their foreheads leaned against each others. For the first time in a long time he smiled back at her, really smiled not just faked it, and pressed his lips to hers again for a second lighter kiss.

"Do you still trust me then?" His voice cautiously asked permission for her trust, something he had tried so hard to earn for so long and had lost when he had tried to choke her to death in District 13.

"Always," She quoted him with a grin, "I'll always trust you."


	4. Chapter 4

**'Cause though the truth may vary this**

**Ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**

"What's going on?" Annie Cresta heard herself scream as she thrashed her muscles around hysterically trying to swim away from the hovercraft as it flew closer to her. The awful sound of the last cannon was still reverberating in her ears as the water lapped around her and she moved about constantly to avoid going under, the same thing she'd been doing for the past hour or so now.

"It's alright, Annie!" She heard her mentor call down as a ladder descended towards her and she bobbed up and down in the waves. It wasn't alright, it couldn't be alright, there were still people out there trying to kill her like they'd killed Sanders right in front of her snickering all the while. Her thoughts were jumbled up as Claudius startled her with his voice echoing around the dome loudly.

"Congratulations to Annie Cresta, the victor of the 70th Annual Hunger Games!" In response the aforementioned seventeen year old was so surprised that she momentarily forgot to tread water and went under. Under the water she could hear the hovercraft's blades drumming away above her and focusing closely she could make out Finnick shouting her name. Seconds after that she regained the ability to move and reappeared above water sputtering only to look up and see Finnick poised to leap out of the craft to come save her. Suddenly it hit her, really hit her, she was the only one left; everyone else was dead, she should be dead. Screaming again she started thrashing about trying to get away from the undeniable fact that they were all dead, no one was left. Some part of her brain heard both her mentor Finnick and his mentor Mags freaking out about how she was going to exhaust herself. Maybe that was best, maybe then she would be dead and gone to where everything was beautiful and nothing hurt like the memories she was facing now.

A splash awoke her from her state and she caught sight of Finnick shaking his bronze curls like a dog and narrowing his sea green eyes to find her. His panicked voice reached her as he called her name over and over again, "Annie! Annie! ANNIE!" Turning back and forth rapidly it was still a minute or two before his keen ears from year of fishing caught the sounds of her splashing about and he followed the noise to where she was still thrashing about her green eyes wide and wild looking with her dark locks sticking to her tan skin. He approached her as he would any wounded animal in the water as he went from screaming her name to cooing it gently followed by "Easy now girl, easy. Everything is going to be okay. You're safe now."

After repeating this a few times, she calmed enough for him to reach her without fear of her taking him under too and he helped her to grab onto the floatation device he'd dived into the water with. She did so with a death grip that made her knuckles go white and worried him slightly but he tried to hide it in a chuckle and a stupid comment about his clothes that her feverish and unstable mind proceeded to ignore and focused on just getting from the float to the ladder when he gestured for her to grab on. Once it had frozen them to it leading to a whimper from her as they began to move quickly up towards the craft. Silent tears streaked down her cheeks as she realized that she couldn't get away and was completely at the mercy of the Capitol. As soon as she was released from the grip of the ladder once they'd gotten in the doorway she collapsed on the ground as her legs shook uncontrollable from exhaustion.

"It's not true, I can't be the only tribute left, why'd they trick me?" She muttered to herself before glancing over at her mentor who was currently trying to wrap a blanket around her shaking shoulders and knowing that he at least wasn't lying to her, she really was the only tribute left. "But they were so much bigger and stronger than me, like the ones that got him." Him, Sanders Fisher, her fellow tribute from District 4 who had been brutally decapitated right in front of her by the male tribute from District 2, one of her fellow Careers and a supposed ally who had betrayed them both by killing her only connection to home whilst laughing about it.

"Believe me you are the only one left Annie, and it's all because you were the best swimmer. I am truly sorry about what happened to Sanders," So he did know what she was talking about when she vaguely mentioned him! "You are the victor though and **'cause the truth may vary** what I've said, I really do promise that** this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**, safe back home." Though she knew his words were true, didn't doubt them one bit, she had already entered into herself at the mere mention of Sander's name aloud and her previous thoughts about his death. Her hands clamped over her ears as she tried to hold off the memories beating her up on the inside. In the midst of her pain, Finnick's voice suddenly reached her, "I'm sorry I couldn't bring you back in one piece." His murmured apology meant more to her than she could articulate at the time as he, though shivering and soaked to the bone himself, picked her up and carried her all wrapped up in a blanket to the waiting hospital bed.

"Please let me put you back together." He begged as he wiped a stray strand of dark hair away from her sea green eyes after laying her curled up in the ball her body was in on the bed and plopping down in the chair beside it. Annie knew that he was trying so hard to make her better and despite her thinking otherwise she knew that Sander's death and her near death this morning hurt him too, he couldn't save either of them and the girl he did save was so broken she barely felt a part of her was salvageable. She needed to be put back together and he needed to be the one to do it, so she nodded before she closed her eyes and passed out from the sheer exhaustion and the trauma of it all. Finnick never left her side and remained there stoic as anyone had ever seen him as he tried to fulfill his promise to her and ignored his own physical state that he would later pay for with a horrible cold that was worth it, he owed her and she deserved to be put back together. Twisting a bit of rope into various knots in his hands he brainstormed a way to do so but it escaped him leaving him a broken man trying to tie himself together long enough to fix a woman as broken as he.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey! Hey! Hey!**

**There's an old voice in my head that's holding me back**

**Well tell her that I miss our little talks**

"**Hey! Hey! Hey!**" Peeta exclaimed after catching sight of Katniss as she left her house decked out in her hunting jacket, boots, a thick wool hat covering her braid, quiver and her trustworthy bow in hand. Her crunching steps in the newly fallen snow stopped as she registered the noise and next thing he knew she had spun around with an arrow notched facing the origin of the noise, him. Throwing his hands up in the air he watched as her tense muscles relaxed upon recognizing him and replaced the arrow in her quiver. Sighing with relief that he didn't have a feathered arrow protruding from his chest or anywhere else, he waved at her from his old home, now a bakery and art gallery, across the way from hers in Victor's Village.

"What is it, Peeta?" She asked her Seam gray eyes narrowing as she mentally ran through a list of things he needed her for and that also couldn't wait until she got back with food. So far she was coming up with nothing so she was trying desperately to be patient as she waited for his answer, the answer she couldn't think of off the top of her head. In the mean time the nineteen year old was taking a day and an age to get his Capitol-made leg down the steps.

"Can I go with you?" The question surprised her and her head flew up so fast to look at him that she nearly suffered from whiplash. Her gray eyes met his blue ones before he dropped his gaze to where he was scuffing both his boots across the snow. Knowing that the old Katniss wasn't the sort to say yes to such an odd request he was trying to resign himself to this fact even though the urge to be with her right then was eating him away. He, more than she, was more the sort to admit that he needed her but right now he was scared to ask her, she trust him and cared for him but he wasn't sure how much and he wasn't going to press it.

"Why?" Her familiar voice slightly hoarse from the cold she was currently fighting off after having got stuck out in the snow storm last week while hunting. Now it was his turn to be startled, she was even considering allowing him to join her?

"Because I really need some ideas for my next painting and I really just want to get away from the bakery for a bit." He somewhat stammered a bit as he spoke, although both parts of what he'd said were true they were still just excuses covering for his real reason of just wanting to spend time with her in her element. She gave him a quizzical look when she quickly realized was just a half hearted excuse like the ones she used to have to give to get him to stay and hold her close so that the nightmares would stay at bay and she wouldn't have to wake up screaming. Sighing to herself and proceeding to hide the noise in a cough and began to calculate the risk in taking him along. Peeta quickly caught onto what she was doing and assumed she was worried about taking along the hijacked boy who could kill her if that part of his mind took over.

"If you're worried about me having a relapse and trying to attack I completely understand your concern and if this causes you to refuse my request."He reassured her and was halfway through turning around to return to the heat of the bakery and his artist's block when he heard her chuckle, previously it wasn't a noise she was well known for emitting and even now it still startled him when she did laugh. Little did he know that it was only around him or because of him that she was now happy enough to chuckle now a days.

"I'm not afraid of you Peeta, for gosh sakes you sleep in the same bed as me. If you truly were to ever attack me again it would have been long ago. I was merely considering whether your footfalls would scare off all the game again." She managed a grin as she reassured him in the same way he used to do with her by using a bit of logic and then a bit of comedy relief perfectly balanced amongst the message. Upon recognizing this and her affirmation that she really did not fear him, as she'd told him a month or so ago, he chuckled a bit himself earning another grin from the huntress.

"You wouldn't forget that, would you? Alright I'll be careful and I can even stay in the Meadow or just in eyesight or promise to stand extremely still and do as you say Cap'n Everdeen." He joked saying exactly the right thing as per usual and earning a nod back as the girl smiled back at him. It made her look younger, wearing a smile instead of a scowl and Peeta loved her smiles all the more because of that.

"Alright, long as you do exactly as I say, you are welcome to come along on this hunt with me." She replied still smiling and even chuckling again as Peeta nodded enthusiastically causing the few blonde curls that had escaped his forest green wool hat to bounce up and down. Once he'd reached her side she slipped her hand into his as he fell in step beside her and they headed towards the woods. Upon reaching the woods, Peeta slowed causing Katniss too as well since their hands were still connected and neither had any intentions of letting go quite yet.

"What do you want me to do now, Katniss? I don't want to get in your way." He inquired and watched as she took in her settings and after a moment gestured towards a rocky outcropping that was barely visible from where they stood. Glancing over at her he made note of the faraway look in her gray eyes and tried desperately to remember why this area would bring about such sad memories.

"How about there?" The huntress suggested and Peeta nodded squeezing her hand tight before letting go and crunching off in his black snow boots with his bad leg struggling to navigate around or over roots, fallen branches, and unseen hollows camouflaged by their snowy cloaks. He could feel her eyes follow him as her way of reassuring that her made it and once he had he turned around and gave her a thumbs up earning a nod in return. Carefully he watched as she turned around and melted into the trees becoming virtually silent as she searched for game before he turned around and took in the view. After standing there silently taking it all in, he plopped down on the natural seat and began to make careful note of the way the tall trees bare of leaves seemed tinier and swayed more with every gust of wind, or the sun reflecting off the snow making everything appear bright, white and new. This truly would make for a great painting he had to admit and he had managed to get most of it sketched out in his mind by the time Katniss returned with two winter hares and a lone gray squirrel on her belt.

"Nice catch!" He praised as she lowed herself down beside him and unhooked the animals from her belt so that she could put them in her dad's old hunting bag, the one that she had stored in her quiver for the walk over and the one she claimed still smelled like him no matter how much time had passed.

"Thanks." Was all she managed for a reply as she became lost in her own world of memories of times here with Gale and him saying similar things or other times like the last time they'd been here and Gale had told her that they should have run away. Even then she had realized that she couldn't live without Peeta and though unwilling to admit it, as it was the day before the Reaping of the Quarter Quell, her subconscious had by the time she had kissed Gale on the cheek as a final goodbye and walked off into the future where she was already plotting and planning to risk it all for him, for the boy with the bread.

"Memories getting to you?" Peeta asked knowingly as he wrapped a strong arm around her shoulders and she scooted closer to him. Suddenly he recognized why this rock was so familiar and cursed himself for not noticing earlier this connection to Gale. Katniss aside from scooting closer was clearly not reacting well and just nodded slowly like a broken bobble head as she debated over whether or not to tell him and bit the inside of her lip. "Do you want to talk about it or is it too soon?" His question surprised her and she glanced over at him unaware that he would want to know before she sighed and focused on an object in the distance.

"It's not too soon at all, it's just that **there's an old voice in my head that's holding me back**." Katniss replied knowing that unlike Dr. Aurelius, Peeta of all people would understand and she knew as he pulled her into a hug and pressed a light protective kiss against her forehead that he did.

"**Well tell her that I miss our little talks**." He murmured into her hair and felt her smile into his shoulder. Despite the flashbacks still coming some days, she felt the boy with the bread was returning to her, that he was finally coming home. Pulling away she looked into his blue eyes and knew that she was home, that the boy beside her was her home and always would be. She needed the yellow dandelion hope of this boy to truly let the fire in her burn free, to be home she needed to only turn to this boy with his bread and run into his arms and she was there.

"I'll let her know." She replied unnecessarily knowing that the memories were free, gone away on the wind as she finally allowed herself to admit that she was truly safe, that they both were finally home.


	6. Chapter 6

**Soon it will be over and buried with our past**

**We used to play outside when we were young and full of life and full of love**

A few days before Annie's victory tour, Finnick went to visit her and her family at their new home two houses down from his in the Victor's Village. It was a nice white house with a light blue door that the nineteen year old was currently standing in front of with his tan hand clenched in a fist as he knocked loudly to alert the house's occupants of his presence. Mrs. Cresta happened to be the closest to the door and she was the one who answered it with her youngest son, Jeremy Cresta known affectionately as Remy, hiding behind her skirts. Upon recognizing him, Remy burst out from behind his mom and tackled the older boy by wrapping his arms tightly around his legs and nearly sending them both topping to the ground.

"Finny!" He hollered loudly using his nickname for the victor and mentor who chuckled before reaching down to ruffle the boy's light brown hair. Remy looked up at him in awe and Finnick caught the sea green eyes that so reminded him of his old sister's.

"Let the poor boy get inside Remy!" Mrs. Cresta chided him with a smile as the boy untangled himself and the nineteen and six year old stepped inside together. As Finnick took off his shoes politely, Mrs. Cresta turned to him and whispered her update about Annie, "Annie is dreading this tour and I was hoping you would be able to calm her down a bit. She was doing so well until this even started to loom closer." Finnick nodded understandingly but quickly wiped his face clean of the emotions he felt at hearing this when he spotted the eighteen year old crossing the hall and catching sight of him.

"Finn!" She yelled happily and smiled at him and ran forward to give the boy a hug. Smiling he hugged her back and tried to choose his words carefully so as not to set her off.

"Hiya Annie! How are you doing today?"

"I've been better but I'm still doing pretty good." Her reply made her mother happy but did nothing to quell Finnick's fears for he could tell that she was lying. He refused to reveal this though and instead continued as though he too was blissfully unaware that she was suffering, and he would be if he couldn't read her so well.

"Iris called me up to come talk to you about preparing for this tour but I'll let her and your stylist handle that boring stuff the day of. Today the three of us are going fishing." Finnick proposed his idea and Remy shouted for joy at being allowed to go on a trip with the big kids and even Annie smiled a bit, she'd grown up on and in the water pre-Games and still loved it.

"Really? I get to go fishing with you two?" Remy verified with a huge grin on his face as he continued to jump up and down enthusiastically.

"Really, really kiddo. The poles are already outside ready to go and everything. Only thing we're waiting on is you two." His reply was met by the six year old's back as he dashed off upstairs to go and change into swim trunks, a t-shirt, and flip flops. Annie herself was already ready so she joined Finnick to wait on her little brother and the pair sat at the bottom of the stairs. Suddenly she clamped her hands over her hands and Finnick watched in awed silence as she whispered to herself the words that calmed her down and held her together.

"It's okay. I'm safe now." She repeated and added her own addition to the end, "They're only memories, they can't hurt you; Finnick won't let them hurt you." After saying this once she had calmed enough to lower her hands from her ears and take a deep breath. Finnick scooted closer to her and took the closer of her tinier hands in his, she was no more than a year and a half younger than him but she felt so much smaller, so much more in need of his protection especially after the Games.

"The nightmares have come back haven't they?" The teen asked her and though the dark circles under her sea green eyes affirmed this he still felt it was necessary to verify this.

"Do they ever go away?" She asked him after he cringed slightly when she nodded and sadly shook his head.

"No unlike the upcoming tour, as **soon it will be over and buried with our past**, but the nightmares they'll stick around for forever." His explanation made her nod sadly before Remy reappeared and she faked a smile. Finnick felt terrible, here he was making her feel worse when what she needed most was to feel better.

"Can we go now?" Remy asked innocently not noticing the smile that didn't reach his sister's eyes or their connected hands. Annie nodded and let go of Finnick's hand as she stepped forward to straighten his button down and fix it because he had mis-buttoned it. Once she'd fixed it he bounded towards the door and yelled, "Then let's go!" The kid than proceeded to sprint out the door followed by a jogging Annie and Finnick as they paused to grab the rods and forced back a laugh. Even when they were trying to protect this kid from their adult and victor issues, he still managed to make them both feel better. Maybe he should take a few notes from this kid, the teen realized with a smile.

Once they'd reached the pier closest to Victor's Village, the mentor and victor helped set up Remy with a rod and find the best spot to fish from so that his feet could splash in the water without too much trouble. Having finished this task he joined Annie and set up his own rod before sitting down next to her. After a few moments of silence he looked over at her and noticed that she was looking off towards the lowering sun on the horizon as she thought about his comment about the omnipresent nightmares.

" I know I mentioned the nightmares earlier and how they'll be around for awhile," Finnick began catching the attention of the girl beside him, "but there's one thing I forgot to mention. Some nights you can keep them at bay by thinking about memories that can't be tainted by the Games like when **we were used to play outside, when we were young and full of life and full of love**." He continued whispering in Annie's ear so as not to worry Remy and through him Mrs. Cresta if he realized his sister's nightmares were causing her such pain. The girl took this knowledge and distracted herself from the memories threatening to overflow by mulling his advice over and concluding that it really was good advice. She thought again of the days when she like Remy and just excited about life and loved everything especially when her older brother Nick would take her along to go fishing or even on a trip to the store, everything felt like an adventure back then.

"Thanks Finn." Was all she could manage along with a real smile which was enough for the teen.

"Anytime Annie." He grinned back with the background suddenly being filled with the noisy revelations of Remy as he reeled in the first fish he'd caught that day. Finnick leapt up to go help him leaving a still smiling Annie who was beginning to realize just how grateful she was for this young man in her life. This man who was helping her become whle again, who understood what she was going through, and most importantly who was willing to do anything and drop everything to take care of her family. She knew irrevocably that she never would be able to repay him for all he'd done but somehow this felt okay. Little did she know that through working to heal her, Finnick was beginning to finally allow himself to heal as well.


	7. Chapter 7

**Some days I feel like I'm wrong when I'm right**

**Your mind is playing tricks on you my dear**

"Evening Haymitch." The woman with the gray eyes and black hair in a braided bun hollered as she walked in the door only to find signs of Effie's presence in the house and spot Greasy Sae. The old woman had been working for Haymitch ever since Peeta and Katniss had gotten married since he was more than prepared to help the woman cook and clean. Correcting herself she greeted the woman, "Evening Sae, how's the job going?"

"Tougher than caring for you alright." She replied with a toothy grin that made her wrinkles seem less prominent and her snow white hair less ragged in its ponytail. Katniss returned the grin along with a chuckle as she could only imagine how hard it was to clean and cook for the drunkard who, if left to his own devices, lived in a pig sty.

"Figures, this is Haymitch we're talking about here." She managed to get out between laughter filled breaths only to have her breath nearly taken away when she heard the aforementioned man growl. Despite her quick reflexes, the lack of a bow left her feeling unprotected and left her with the only option of nearly leaping clean out of her hunting boots as the man appeared behind her stinking of white liquor and carrying a bag of bird feed for his flock of geese.

"What do you want, jumpy? I assume you didn't just come over here to comment on my living conditions but who knows with you sweetheart." Somehow the nickname he'd given her on the train the first day she'd met her mentor had stuck and his aptitude for coming up with new ones in addition to the classic 'sweetheart' had never abated. The man was currently tossing back an empty bottle of what appeared to be white liquor and swallowing the last drops with a smile. Not many people, Katniss and Peeta included, could stand the burning of the white liquor as it hit the back of one's throat but alcoholics, like Haymitch, lived for that feeling.

"Well since you are clearly ever so busy, I will try to be quick. I just wanted to talk to you about Peeta." The nearly sixty year old drunkard sat up as she mentioned her husband of fifteen years and glanced quizzically at the thirty four year old woman.

"You still don't deserve a guy as great as him." He reminded her and she gave him a small smile in return, he'd been telling her this for years and she knew it very well for she was extremely lucky to have him.

"Everyone knows that Haymitch, nobody deserves a guy as great as him."

"Damn right you are sweetheart, not pass me that right there bottle if you don't mind, or even if you do, just send it on down here." The white haired man requested of the lithe hunter beside him who grumbled under her breath before reaching for the requested bottle. In the end she was unable to actually grab it because Effie came floating in wearing a red curly haired wig and rather plain forest green and brown dress by her standards and smacked her hand away.

"Absolutely not Haymitch, your doctor said only one a day you old drunkard." She exclaimed her bright red eyebrows and forest green colored lips pressed in a line as she ordered the man around. Katniss automatically leapt back because she knew all too well that Haymitch, who was already glaring at the Capitol woman, was not one to have his alcohol curtailed. In fact he had started multiple fights in past years on this very subject and it was one of the main reasons for the huge scar above his left eyebrow and the thin one across his jaw both gained post-Quarter Quell.

"Oh shut up you old witch, I can handle one more bottle and the old doc can take that and his diagnosis and put that in his pipe and smoke it for all I care." Throughout Haymitch's commentary Effie sat there with her arms crossed over her chest and a foot constantly tapping away impatiently.

"Manners Haymitch!" She exclaimed before continuing, "Well it's your life you crotchety old man and who cares if you live or die. Just heed my words and don't blame it on me for I warned you." The woman walked off quickly in her, again surprisingly, flat green shoes as she went off to go be sure that Greasy Sae was fixing dinner and if she needed any assistance. Grumbling Haymitch's Seam gray eyes kept darting towards the bottle but he sighed deeply and abstained for the time being impressing the woman he mentored.

"Should have gotten her around here sooner!" She muttered under her breath only to have Haymitch round on her with his untamed white locks flopping and his eyes narrowed.

"What did you just say sweetheart?" He inquired threateningly causing the huntress to gulp as she continued to expect the violent reaction from the wrinkled warrior.

"Nothing Haymitch, nothing!" Her voice came out in an uncharacteristic squeak, she could take out a drunk Haymitch but a sober one whose reflexes were not dulled by age and was still a master with a knife would be impossibly for her to take down, especially without a bow and arrows.

"That's right girlie, now what did you come over to talk to me about again?" He paused, clearly intending to continue, as he ran a hand through his white hair taming it slightly, "Something about, Peeta?"

"Yes actually, as you know we've been married for almost fifteen years now and he has and still does want kids and I don't. After years of watching people have kids only to lose them to the Games has made me never want kids ever since I was little, but it's Peeta and I feel terrible refusing him this simple pleasure. But I just can't do it, I'm too afraid of them being hurt like I was." Katniss paused to collapse in a chair beside him before admitting, "**Some days I feel like I'm wrong when I'm right**, or think I'm right, about this anyways." Her head fell down in defeat and Haymitch gazed over at the survivor of two sets of Games and the face of the rebellion as the Mockingjay who was struck with almost paralyzing fear by the mere idea of having kids.

"Katniss I hate to say this but I do believe that** your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear**. Subconsciously you want kids too and deep down you know that they are quite safe now and they will be too in the future. I suggest that you trust Peeta on this one and that you two do indeed have one or two." His gentle suggestion was worth it as he saw the relieved look in her eyes. He figured that she had already started to want this too but needed him, the one most like her, to affirm this desire and make it okay. "After all than I get to be their Uncle Haymitch and that, that will be a blast." The old man chuckled as Katniss went white just imagining this occurring, no good could come of this she knew. Suddenly a thought hit her as a method to counter his joke and make him worry as much as she currently was.

"Only if he'll let their Aunt Effie stick around and help him!" Now it was Haymitch's turn to go white as a ghost and mumble something about losing all his beloved liquor if such a terrible catastrophe ever occurred. Katniss continued to chuckle as she walked out the door and caught sight of the red wig wearing Effie giggling away in the kitchen as she must have heard the end of their conversation and found Katniss' comment absolutely hilarious, she gave the woman a thumbs up for her comeback and her suggestion.


	8. Chapter 8

**'Cause though the truth may vary**

**This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**

Katniss floated about in a morphling filled dream that felt akin to the effects of Tracker Jacker venom. Her thoughts went from the shiny images and bright orange bubbles of color to only thoughts of Peeta, a sufferer of hijacking. Images of the boy filled her mind as the doctor's simultaneously tried to repair the physically burned parts of her body in reality but she was emotionally and mentally gone as she continued off into her own world. Words floated like bubbles around her with some that she remembered and some that she had never heard in her life. One kept coming back and suddenly if was given power by the voice of he who must have said it.

"Always." Repeated Katniss who, under the hallucinogenic drug, had reverted back to her age six body with two braids instead of one. Suddenly a familiar figure of a thirteen year old girl with the back of her shirt untucked appeared in the shadows that little girl Katniss caught sight of and tilted her head like a puppy trying to understand what's going on.

"Who's there?" She squeaked only to have the familiar shadow disappear and a different shadow of enlarged and ginormous Buttercup leap at her clawing at her skin. The girl screamed and tried to run away from the monstrosity of her own creation. "Leave me alone!" Her cries filled the air after she had fallen having tripped over her own shoelaces and Buttercup stood over her growling with his whiskers grazing her cheeks and his hot smelly breath burning her nasal passages.

"Leave her be!" Hollered a little boy about her size and age with painfully bright blonde hair and the biggest sapphire blue eyes seen on any kid she'd ever met. Surprisingly the cat listened and backed off grumbling at losing its prey to a stomping little boy before it scampered off back into his home in the dark shadows of her mind, the parts she couldn't deal with at the moment.

"Are you okay?" The little boy asked offering a hand up which the girl took cautiously. Neither of their hands were worn by work yet and Katniss was saddened when the boy let go, the girl felt comforted by his hand in hers. To disguise her slight sadness at the lack of a hand in hers, the girl ducked her head to dust off her skirts before looking back up at the boy and observing him warily. She had approached the shadow too quickly and had learned her lesson, not everyone here, where ever here was, was to be trusted.

"Are you going to try and hurt me too?" Her question apparently wounded him as he ducked his head and sniffled in response and her eyes grew wide, had she made him cry?

"Of course not, I want to protect you always." His reply left her looking at the boy with the watery eyes with surprise obvious in her gray eyes.

"Always?" She repeated recognizing the word from before whatever and wherever this was, maybe a lifetime ago. The boy smiled back at her with his eyes drier than before and he looked as though he recognized this word and knew that it was important for them both in the past.

"Always." It seemed like a promise which made Katniss look over at him joyfully, at least she had one friend in this forsaken place until she realized that she didn't even know his name. But before she could ask he was off yelling about something she absolutely had to come see at that very second and had disappeared into the shadowy darkness before she had time to catch up with him.

"Wait up!" She sobbed as she stumbled to the edge of the darkness and searched for any sight or sound of the boy.

"He'll be back soon." An older, hoarse, and sadder voice reassured her and she whirled around searching for this new chess piece of the game that had to be taking place in her mind. Eventually her eyes locked on the man in his early twenties who had large haunted sea green eyes and bronze curls that fluttered each and every way like all hair does in water.

"Who are you?" She asked with her short arms crossed over her bird cage chest as she tried to sort through all these people and dangers lurking here. Even when she eventually did determine he wasn't a threat, she still couldn't help but wonder why, why he was there.

"Finnick Odair, nice to meet you again Katniss. You used to know me when you were big. I was your friend." This Finnick fellow replied and knelt down so that he was at the girl's level as her gray eyes looked deep into his sea green orbs for an answer, she was so confused to begin with and his spoken answer hadn't helped her at all.

"I was big?" Her question made him chuckle as he nodded in response to her question. "Then how'd I become small again?"

"You were indeed big and still are but you've gotten very lost girlie and that's how you got small again." His explanation still confused her slightly but cleared things up greatly as he stood up moving further away from her. The girl reached upwards for him not wanting to lose him too. He smiled down at her with a smile that didn't quite brighten those haunted eyes as he bent back down and helped her up onto his shoulders.

"If I'm lost, how do I get home? Is that where that boy ran off to?" Her continuous questions were reminiscent of how he had been as a kid and brought a smile onto his face that actually reached his eyes this time as he laughed.

"Slow down kiddo, one question at a time. For Annie's sake I hope our child isn't half as inquisitive and active as you." His eyes got a faraway look about them upon mentioning this Annie person. "Well, I suppose that that's out of my control now. Either way, to get home you have to know where home is first off. To answer your other question that boy ran off to another part of where we are."

"And where's that?" Katniss interrupted him earning another chuckle. This man was much nicer she decided when he laughed, like the sort of person she would want to be friends with once she got older.

"It's the land for those people and things who have gone away like you and the boy's childhood selves." He explained slowly only to have the little girl on his shoulders throw herself dangerously far forward so that she could lean over and be eye to eye with him with her tan hands steadying herself by gripping his hair tightly.

"Then why are you here?" The question for the little girl still made him cringe despite the fact that he expected it. She missed his moment of pain though as she had just flung herself backwards so that she was seated back on his shoulders and unable to see his face and especially his expressive eyes.

"Because I too am gone, I died you see not that long ago while trying to protect you and make a better world for my own kid and wife. Do you understand now?" The girl could hear the sadness in his voice and automatically believed him. She leaned forward again so that when he looked up at her he saw her nod. "That's good now you have to listen very close to me, very closely, understand?" Pausing he pulled her carefully off his shoulders and into his arms facing him so that he could be sure she got every word. "**Cause though the truth may vary** in this world and it will seem like a sort of dream when you wake up I'm going to have you write this down and put it in your pocket. I need you to give this message to Annie, Annie Cresta, my wife, you know her too. Promise?"

"I cross my heart and hope to die." She swore and watched as the man winced at her word choice, "Okay not die but shoot, I cross my heart and hope to shoot."

"That's better, now give this to Annie, okay?" He passed her a small folded up piece of paper with the name Annie on it in blue ink.

"Okay, but if this is like a dream how will it come through to the other place?" Katniss asked her little mind working hard and spinning its gears to no avail, she still didn't understand quite yet.

"This is a dream, your right you brilliant little girl, however that piece of paper was already in your pocket, I put it in your pack when I was alive and before the final fight. I didn't know for sure that I was going to die then but I wanted to be ready just in case." Finnick replied as the girl slipped it in her pocket and nodded, now she completely understood. "Don't think I forgot about you girlie, I have a message for you too but this one you just have to remember, got it?" The little girl did, "Don't die young like I did but if you do, since that's out of your control, live every single moment to the fullest with the one who not only makes you happy but makes you the best person you can be."

"Is that the boy with the blonde hair I saw earlier? Will he become that for me?" She asked curious after a moment or so and having assure herself that she had what he'd said memorized and engrained in her mind word for word. The man smiled to himself, this girl had no idea how right she was he thought to himself as he set her on the ground and crouched down so he was again at her level

"That's for me to know and you to see once you make it home. Speaking of home, you need to take that ship," Pointing at the ship that had suddenly materialized from the darkness, "**This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**, always."

"Always." Repeated the boy who had reappeared on the deck of the ship with his blue eyes sparkling as he echoed what the man had said.

"Ready to go, little Katniss?" The man with the sea green eyes brimming with renewed sadness as the girl nodded her twin braids shaking before she leapt into his arms nearly knocking him over as she gave him a hug.

"Will I ever see you again?" Her little voice was wet with unshed tears as she begged him to answer her question with her big gray eyes wide and tearing up.

"Only in your dreams until it's time for your final rest, girlie, but I'll always be with you." He tried to reassure her but it was slightly less effective when he had tears streaming down his own cheeks.

"Pinkie promise?"

"Pinkie promise." The hurting man and the little girl interlocked their pinkies together before he again picked the girl up to help her onto the boat. "Now it's high time we got you home." He joked as he helped her over the railing earning a smile through the girl's tears as he let go and he watched the boy take her tiny hand in his to steady her. The two waved as the boat got further and further away from the man and her tears continued to stream down her face forcing her to stop waving and wipe them away.

How much longer until we get home?" She asked the boy beside her who gave her hand a squeeze before looking over at her and sending her an unforgettable smile.

"You're already there, you just have to open your eyes." He replied before letting go of her hand and waving to her as well, "I'll see you again!" His promise carried her away from the ship as her eyes fluttered open to the sound of beeping machines in a stark white room. The sounds of the equipment were soon overridden by the blonde haired and blue eyed boy strapped like she was to the bed beside her. He was sound asleep with the assistance of morphling like she had been and was murmuring over and over again, "Always." It was both Peeta and the boy from her dream's voice, she had to tell him, had to let him know but a shot of morphling and sleep syrup from the IV in her arm made her fall asleep again before she had a chance. As she drifted off it was his voice that served as her lullaby as the boy with the bread promised over and over, "Always."


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey!**

**Don't listen to a word I say**

**Hey!**

**The screams all sound the same**

"**Hey!**" Peeta whispered as Katniss slept fitfully beside him and he tried to wake her from what could only be another nightmare. Suddenly his wife lashed out and startled him into flying backwards out of reach and straight off the bed. He hit the floor with a thud followed by a groan before he struggled to get up as his metal prosthetic slipped on the covers she'd flung off earlier alerting him to her frightened state.

"You took her away!" She screamed as her memories took over and she was left shivering like a wreck in response. Even with her husband, the only one who had ever been able to keep the memories away, there it was on nights like this one, the anniversary of someone's death, that they sometimes broke through despite this.

"Why? Why? Why?" Her question was repeated over and over again like a broken record player in her screeching sobbing voice. Peeta, having finally regained his footing, was trying desperately to wake the woman as she trembled. "We had already won dammit!" Katniss roared to know one in particular as Peeta crawled hesitantly towards her and shook her shoulders in a final attempt to bring her back to reality before she became too lost in the nightmare, before he lost her again.

"Katniss?" He shook her shoulders, "You need to wake up." Again his worn hands grasped her shoulders and shook, "It's only a nightmare. It's not real. Not real." He reassured her as he shook her shoulders for a final time and was gratified for his efforts as her eyes flew open and she gasped for air. "Katniss?" Her eyes locked on his the gray orbs wide and wild looking as he sat there beside her examining her face to be sure she was awake and truly okay. A sob escaped her lips as she dove into his arms nearly knocking him off the bed again. Shushing her comfortingly he ran a hand through her knotted curly dark hair as he attempted to soothe her and help her relax.

"Hey now, easy sweetheart." He repeated over and over until the woman relaxed and her sobs slowed then ultimately stopped. It was perfect timing too because their involuntary house guest chose that moment to barrel in with a random girl on his arm and only wearing Peeta's robe wrapped around him.

"What are you two hollering about at this hour of the night, I thought that married couples went to bed earlier and led fairly boring lives." He snickered earning a giggle from the girl behind him and Katniss' shoulders tensed at his comment and just his voice in general. Seeing this, Peeta watched as the man immediately stopped snickering and upon realizing how hurt she was immediately looked as apologetic as he had ever seen him. Despite this show of concern for his old friend, Peeta still wished that Gale had picked any other night to come visit, this was definitely not a good one, not on the anniversary of Prim's death, the death Katniss still blamed her old hunting partner for.

"Gale, if we're bothering you, you are more than welcome to go and sleep in the guest bedroom above my bakery across the way. The bed is made up and there are clean towels in the bathroom." The baker offered to the barely older government official as his way of being the adult in this situation in comparison to Gale who was about as much of a wreck as Katniss was as he slept with a different girl every night since arriving a week ago, was drunk every night, and slept all day. Was he suffering too? No that couldn't be possible, not a man who created bombs and developed military level traps all to kill the most people; a man like that would not lose it this much over a little girl's death but maybe he was wrong, Gale had loved Prim too. Was Katniss possibly wrong about Gale not caring that his bomb had killed his friend's beloved little sister?

"We're fine here." Gale insisted sounding weak, he didn't want to be left alone, not tonight. Katniss stiffened not hearing the begging tone in his voice, the tone of a little boy who didn't want to be left alone in the nighttime darkness. The huntress spun around and glared at the drunk and hurting man with her eyes still red and puffy from crying.

"It wasn't an offer." The broken girl growled at her fellow broken man as Peeta watched as Gale recoiled as though her words alone had been a slap across the face. Peeta knew how Gale felt in that moment and almost pitied his wife and her old friend, what they both needed the most was for her to forgive him, maybe then they could begin to heal.

"Fine." He snapped back as the fire in him was kindled by her lashing out with her own fire, "Just give us the key and we'll go already."

"On the back of the front door downstairs, we'll talk to you in the morning, alright?" Katniss wasn't even given time to answer as Peeta leapt in before she and Gale could start a fight and keep everyone up all night with their screams. The hunter nodded as the huntress glared at him from where she stood with her arms across her chest, trying to look strong despite the tear streaks still visible on her face. Only after she'd heard the click of the lock that made it abundantly clear that the two were gone did Katniss turn around and let the tremors she'd been holding back go as she crawled back onto Peeta's lab and he rewrapped his arms around her now shaking form.

"It was Prim wasn't it?" He whispered in an attempt to simultaneously distract from the Gale incident and bring her back to the earlier talk they'd been about to have about her nightmare.

"It was." His wife replied as she nodded sadly, "It was about after that day and how they didn't believe me then and **don't listen to a word I say** even now whenever I accuse him, Beetee, and Plutarch of using their bomb to kill her, to kill Prim. Beetee and Plutarch have since apologized but Gale still won't hear of it, even now." She paused to take a deep breath and look deep into his blue eyes with her own aching gray ones, "Why couldn't he stay with Haymitch?" Peeta rubbed soothing circles into her back as he thought this over before chuckling slightly earning a quizzical look complete with one of her eyebrows arched looking curiously like that cat she hated so much.

"Cause Haymitch wasn't in the mood to clean and figured we'd cave before he was forced to pick up the pig sty that has become his house." Katniss grinned at his comment but the smile still didn't reach her eyes as she kissed his check as thanks for the comedy relief.

"**Hey!**" Gale hollered outside their lit window interrupting Peeta as he leaned forward about to catch his wife's lips on his. At the sound of his voice the angry fire that had consumed her earlier took over and she leapt up, despite a voice in her head begging her not to leave Peeta's lap, to turn on the light and rush over to the window to see her former hunting partner drunk and looking up at her from the bush he'd fallen into.

"What in the hell do you want?" Katniss hissed at him and watched as he recoiled in response and scuffed a bare foot in the dirt at his feet as he picked a few leaves out of his hair looking confused as to how they got there.

"I left my clothes on the floor of my room. Can you get them for me?" He called back earning a look of absolute disgust from the twenty one year old woman. Knowing that he had to step in before the two started a fight, he couldn't deal with a fight tonight; he missed Prim too and felt that a fight would be the worst way to honor her memory.

"Can it wait till morning?" Her husband called down appearing at the window beside the huntress. Gale shook his head slowly smiling slightly like an idiot from all the alcohol coursing though his body. "Fine, I'll just toss down your suitcase, sound good?" The man below nodded slowly and hiccupped as Peeta left Katniss to keep an eye on the drunk Gale as he retrieved the suitcase. As they waited, Gale glanced around and snuck a sip of alcohol from the flask in his pocket and Katniss grimaced at the animalistic behavior he had succumbed too. Not for a moment did she pause to ask why, why the man she once knew to be a pillar of strength had fallen so low because she knew and didn't want to admit that it was Prim's demise that had made him this way. Thankfully Peeta appeared not long after the flask moment, with the bag in hand which he proceeded to toss out the window gently to ensure that it was catchable for Gale even in his drunken state.

"Thanks man!" He called back as he staggered off and Katniss sighed in relief at his exiting.

"He's hurting tonight too." Peeta pointed out earning a shocked look from his wife who crossed her arms over her t-shirt covered chest and refused to believe it for even a second.

"What do you mean he's hurting too? It's not his little sister who died three years ago and he isn't waking up screaming from nightmares." She pointed out as her temper flared slight until Peeta nodded in agreement and the spark of anger went out. Crawling back into bed with Katniss reluctantly following after she turned off the light.

"You're right about that but he's still beating himself up for her death and he is trying desperately to deal with it with drinking and girls." He explained before rolling over and locking eyes with his wife so that her gray eyes hardened to shards met his big blue eyes as calm as the sea. "I doubt you want to hear this but he needs help too and to me, and to Prim as well I'm sure, **the screams all sound the same**." Katniss lay there wanting desperately to blame the trap maker but she knew deep in her heart that Peeta was right.

"Alright." She conceded as she knew that hurt he felt, was the same ache she felt in her chest today and whenever anyone mentioned Prim. "But not tonight, I'll talk to him in the morning."

"Sounds good to me, now get over here so that we can both get a few hours of sleep before the sun rises and the work at the bakery calls." The young man joked with a grin and she smiled and scooted closer into his embrace and rested her forehead against his shoulder.

"Thank you for being the greatest." Katniss whispered just loud enough for him to catch it and he kissed the top of her head gently in response.

"It's my job sweetheart." He replied and they both smiled and ended up falling asleep that way with their arms around the other broken body and feeling as whole as could be.


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey!**

**Though the truth may vary**

**This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**

Annie Odair watched with smiling sea green eyes surrounded by wrinkles as her three great grandchildren, Jeremy, Triss, andMari, played in her yard. Her face broke into a grin as she looked at the youngest of the three and caught sight of his bronze locks glowing in the sun and his sea green eyes sparkling as he laughed. Out of all of her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids, he looked the most like her late husband and the boy's name was Jeremy, like her late little brother, and he went by Jerry unlike her baby brother Remy.

Her son, Ren, walked up beside her and sat down on the steps beside her as he watched his grandchildren play wearing a smile of his own. He too had both his father and mother's sea green eyes combined with his mother's curly dark locks and oddly enough looked a lot like Finnick's older brother Mako.

"**Hey!**" Finnick's voice suddenly reached her and she looked up searching for him like a puppy who heard the voice of their owner calling for them. Spinning her chair around the ninety three year old woman searched desperately for its source thinking only of Finnick, her Finn. Suddenly she caught sight of him standing in the doorway of the home that they would have shared but instead belonged to just her not that her family had all moved on. He shimmered slightly as he grinned at her not looking a day over twenty five, with his bronze curls and sea green eyes glimmering as he leaned against the doorway. Wheeling right up to him she took in the smile, the eyes, everything that made up the man she'd loved and hadn't seen but in her dreams and desperate moments in over seventy years.

"Is it time?" She asked desperately wanting nothing more to go home after all this time, to come home to him like he'd promised so long ago.

"Almost my amazing girl. You're almost there, almost home." He promised placing a cold translucent hand on her cheek and pressed his frozen lips to her forehead gently.

"I've waited for you so long Finn, I've missed you so much." Her whisper reached the ears of her son causing him to turn around and walk over to go check on his aging mother.

"Are you alright mom?" He asked as he limped slightly to her side and Finnick looked on proudly of the man his boy Ren had grown up to become. The boy had become a fisher, father of a son (Kai) and a daughter (Mags), and a grandfather to Jerry, Triss, and Mari.

"Just thought I heard Finn's voice but it must have just been my imagination. He'd be so proud of you." She smiled at Ren who nodded and smiled back.

"He was a great man, I'm glad that he'd be proud, means I did something right." His son added and Finnick absolutely beamed.

"That's my boy." He affirmed unnecessarily with a grin that only Annie saw and was able to enjoy. She rejoined him to watch the sunset for the last time and as the mother and son watched the sky change colors and Mari, Triss, and Jerry play, his father and her husband looked on happy to be able to see this moment, he'd missed out on so many. Two other figures appeared beside Finn at the door that she automatically recognized as her old friends Peeta and Katniss. The couple had passed away nearly five and a half years ago in their sleep and each other's arms as proud parents of a daughter (Rue) and son (Finnick) as well as the proud grandparents of Prim and Ashton.

"Hey Annie," Peeta smiled at her and Katniss grinned as well her hand held tight in his, even in death they had no intentions of letting go.

"It's great to see you too old girl." Katniss greeted her and the two shared a smile, they had become great friends in the years following the end of the war and had still remained great friends up until Katniss' death. By now the sun had disappeared beyond the horizon and the stars twinkled merrily above her as each of her great grandchildren ran up and gave her a hug good night before Ren shooed them off to their respective homes. Before he headed home with them he paused to give his mother a hug and a kiss on the cheek, he knew that she didn't have much longer especially since hearing her talk of and to Finn today.

"Good night mom." He grinned at her and she made him bend over so she could kiss him on the forehead. When he stood up he saw the old woman smiling at him with old wrinkled lips, her white curly hair braided back, and her sea green eyes shining as bright as ever.

"Good bye Ren, I love you." Her final goodbye was simple, short, and sweet, but it was enough. He didn't need to hear a long sappy goodbye, he knew it was time for her to go and that she would of course miss and always love him.

"Love you too." Ren replied before he limped off with the kids so that they could go home and he too could go home to where his wife awaited him. Annie painfully spun her chair around and wheeled herself inside being led by Finn and followed by Katniss and Peeta Mellark who ensured that she shut the door before walking straight through it.

"Does it hurt?" She called back to Katniss who shook her head and smiled at her, the huntress remembered this moment when both she and Peeta had seen Finnick and Prim and knew that they had come to collect them, come to take them home.

"Like going to sleep." The ghost replied as she tucked a bit of dark hair behind her ear and back into her omnipresent braid. "And we'll be with you to the end."

"Indeed." Finnick affirmed as he floated just above the corner of his elderly wife's bed.

"It seems too good to be true, safe and home after all this time?" She admitted as she stood up shakily and Katniss and Peeta floated to either side of her as she hobbled to bed. Each and every one of her bones and muscles ached from use and arthritis over her long life and now rebelled daily making movement difficult at best.

"**Though the truth may vary** what you think, I promise it really is the honest to goodness truth. Cross my heart and hope to shoot." He promised and Katniss grinned as he used her favorite swear. Annie nodded trusting him as she always had even years after he'd died and only visited as a ghost or a creature of her dreams. Pulling the covers up to her chin she looked at her smiling husband and their two best friends and couldn't help but smile back.

"See you soon." She murmured as her eyes fluttered closed for the last time and her old body finally let go. Finally after these years she was going home and she relaxed into the dream that never ended. When she opened her eyes again they didn't feel heavy with the weight of age or wear and tear, and she found herself on a beach looking as she had at twenty two with her thick dark curls having returned and those sea green eyes having never changed. Her skin was tan and speckled with freckles from practically living on the beach that summer alongside Finn. Finn! Where was he? She leapt up to her feet barely registering that her body didn't ache or fell pained in the least as it so often had not too long ago. Standing there on the small stretch of beach with the water lapping at her toes she searched for Finn, he promised he'd be there and Finn didn't break promises

As she looked out to see she caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a craft coming towards her, and as it got closer she relaxed. It was undoubtedly a ship and the figure waving to her from the bow was none other than her Finn with his bronze locks fluttering in the spray and his sea green eyes gleaming. Remy leapt up and down beside him his twelve year old body practically wiggling with excitement as he caught sight of the sister he hadn't seen in seventy some years. Her older brother, Nick, stood beside him laughing with both Mako Finnick and Gale Hawthorne beside him as the three cracked jokes and got along in a way older brothers only could. Both the Crestas and the Odairs sat there smiling at their daughter and the mother of their only grandchild. Sanders, her partner in the Games, leaned against the railing pointing out the different types of fish with Mags assistance as Johanna and Katniss looked bored to death while Peeta was absolutely enraptured. His mind may have been on the fish discussion but his hand remained in his wife's grip, they truly didn't ever let go.

When the boat reached the sand Finn had flipped off the prow and landed on the sand on light feet as he sprinted to his wife with arms outstretched and wearing a smile that beamed brighter than the lighthouse on District 4's craggiest bay. Annie ran towards him er own arms reaching across time and space until they met in the middle and she flew into his embrace nearly knocking him to the ground in her enthusiasm. Standing there in her embrace, Finnick pulled back enough to smirk and press his lips to hers tasting exactly as he had seventy years prior. Pulling apart Annie hungered for more, she hadn't been kissed in so long and her lips ached for his again, but it took a pointed cough from her father to bring her back to this reality.

"Oh right, well, then, ehem." Finnick began and failed multiple times before he was able to begin talking again in his excitement, "Welcome Annie Cresta Odair to the sea betwixt the realms and welcome to this ship, the only bridge between them. Apparently I'm not allowed to hog all your time, though I wish I could, so I'm supposed to lead you aboard so that you can speak to your family and friends and catch up on all that lost time while **this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**, safe home." The twenty four year old relayed looking rather put out than he couldn't spend more time catching up with her, his wife. Bringing his lips to her again, she kissed him gently before pulling away and grabbing his hand as she sprinted back towards the ship with the boy laughing as he got pulled along. Without much effort she flew into the boar and into the arms of her waiting family and friends and then, with Finn's hands in hers and their voices echoing around her, she felt at home. As the ship turned about and they headed for her new life with the only people she wanted to be with for the rest of time, she felt Finn's warm hand in hers and caught him smiling at her; it had never felt so good to come home.

**Thanks for all the awesome reviews, I'm glad you guys like it :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey!**

**Hey!**

**You're gone, gone, gone away**

**I watched you disappear**

**All that's left is a ghost of you**

"**Hey!**" Annie called softly to the blonde boy slumped in the chair outside the door of the makeshift hospital room in Snow's mansion. The eighteen year old didn't turn around and the twenty three year old woman began to worry that he might be having a flashback but taken in his slumped shoulders she quickly realized it was not the hijacked memories but a recent pain that kept him there, made it hard to hear another calling to him, and made him try to go inward as she did when the memories or reality go too bad. "**Hey!**" She said again but a little louder and received more of a reaction as he lifted his head from his hands and she caught sight of his red rimmed blue eyes from a combination of recent crying and lack of sleep. He turned around slowly searching for the source of the noise with his blue eyes wide and wild and the cuffs holding his wrists together and simultaneously to the chair clinked together. Upon catching sight of the woman with the dark curly hair, the big sea green eyes, and a rounder belly than he remembered her previously having.

"Annie." Peeta sighed with relief upon realizing it was her and not someone trying to take him away from his self-imposed sentry duty, the job that he absolutely refused to leave even to sleep. As she walked up to the teenager, she smiled at him and ignored the cuffs on his wrists as she knew all too well of his hijacking produced flashbacks.

"Peeta, it's good to see you again." Her sweet voice greeted him earning a half smile from the half asleep and completely broken young man. "Where's Finn?" When her question reached his ears he ducked his head in shame with only a ghost left of the smile that had been there previously. "What is it Peeta? What's wrong?" Annie begged to know but the baker's boy just sat there staring at the ground like it was suddenly the most interesting thing he'd ever seen as he tried desperately to form words, words that just wouldn't come, and his body started shaking all over again. When he finally got the nerve to look up into the panic-stricken face that was Annie Odair he caught sight of not only her trembling lips but also Finnick Odair standing behind her looking as translucent, pale, and hurting as they come. "Peeta answer me!" The woman all but screamed as his shell shocked face looked on yet again unhearing as the teen instead looked into his dead friend's eyes as he felt the flashbacks begin to come and he begged them, begged him, to keep them at bay, he couldn't deal with them today.

"He's gone Annie." He finally got out after what felt like an eternity to the panicking pregnant woman, he meant to continue to tell her exactly what was going on but instead caught Finnick's aching sea green eyes suddenly beside him, "But **you're gone, gone, gone away** Finnick, **I watched you disappear**." Peeta told the apparition who only smiled at him before he truly lost it and collapsed back into his chair with his head knocking painfully loud against the wall. Some voice in the back of his head told him to dig his wrists into the cuffs to keep him grounded without Katniss' voice there to whisper to him and beg him to stay. Instead of a flashback though the survivor passed out and his body lolled forward and painfully hit the floor with his hands still cuffed to the chair that crashed beside him. The pregnant widow stood there in shock as she tried to process the knowledge that Finn, her only anchor to reality most days, was gone and her only connection to him was currently unconscious at her feet.

"Help!" She screamed once she retained the use of her lungs, her body shook with the sobs she tried to hold back. "Somebody help me!" But no doctors came running to her rescue and she fell to the floor in a heap with her hands clamped over her ears as she screamed soundlessly over and over again for unheard cries for help.

"Annie, you've got to calm down now." A voice reached her and her sea green eyes flew open to see the one and only Finnick kneeling there on the floor beside her looking translucent and panicked. "Annie, please. Please, dear sweet Annie." He begged and the sight of her ghost of a husband shocked her into calming gown and instead started hiccupping rather than sobbing continuously.

"Finn!" She exclaimed and reached for his face only for her hand to go through and she whimpered, "What's going on?" The image smiled gently at her and his sea green eyes met hers of the matching color.

"You needed help so I came."

"But you're dead, Finn." Annie cried out and he looked hurt by her words but she pressed on nonetheless, she needed to be heard by him now more than ever, "You're dead and gone and **all that's left is a ghost of you**."

"I am dead." The ghost affirmed as it nodded its head sympathetically, "but I won't ever leave you. Just because you won't always be able to see me doesn't mean I won't be there. You have to be strong for me Annie, okay?" Finnick replied as ghostly tears flowed down his checks.

"I'll try Finn but without you, I don't know how to be strong, I have no left." The woman managed to hiccup out as his green eyes looked into hers.

"You do, I know you do. You just have to do as I taught you with the breathing and the mantra and you'll be alright. You are strong, and you do have people left including that boy on the floor beside you, the baby in your belly, and the girl in the operating room that the boy was guarding. If you ever need me, I'll be there, in your heart or looking over your shoulder." Annie smiled for the first time earning a smile from the man, "I promised to protect you and I'm not going to let this setback stop me." Only Finn could call his death a setback, "Help is on the way and I have to leave you now sweetheart." His ghostly hand floated into hers and she looked into his eyes and nodded. She was strong enough, she had to be, and she was never alone, Finn would always be there, he promised.

"Come visit me soon, promise?"

"Promise." He grinned as he started to fade away. Standing up stiffly she managed to hide the effects of the sobs and it looked like she was only frightened by the boy passing out. When the doctors finally did arrive she had gotten Peeta back into the chair and held him up so that he wasn't lying on the floor. They came and strapped him to a bed beside Katniss' and Annie came and sat in between the two other broken creatures that were her friends and fellow survivors. Sitting down in a chair that she set in between their beds and with a hand resting lightly on her stomach she whispered to herself and Finnick if he was listening.

"I am strong, I will be strong for them. I promise Finn." Somewhere the ghost of the District 4 victor, mentor, husband, and father-to-be smiled.


	12. Chapter 12

**Now we're torn, torn, torn apart**

**There's nothing we can do**

Katniss watched as Peeta struggled with a flashback and gripped the paintbrush in his hands so hard that it shattered splattering red paint all over his apron and getting it all over Katniss' old t-shirt. Luckily none got on the memory book they were working on but, it did get all over her face leaving blood like streaks across her face. The splattering of paint shook the huntress out of her paralyzed state and forced her into motion, which was, in this case, attempting to scoot forward to comfort the shaking and aching male. In a moment of reason however the man threw himself away from the concerned woman and scooted backwards.

"Don't touch me, I don't want to hurt you." He whispered a warning with his blue eyes flashing as he watched her ignore it and move closer anyways. Wrapping her tan arms around his shaking body the boy stiffened in her embrace as he tensed with absolutely petrifying fear. Fear that he might lose it, really, truly lose it, and in the process lose her, the only thing that he was living for at this point.

"Stay with me." Her voice was soft as she held him tighter even as he squirmed because he worried more about hurting her than anything else as the shimmering memories descended and made it difficult for him to focus. Suddenly her words reached his panic stricken mind and he relaxed into her breathing deeply relieved that the flashback had passed.

"Always." He affirmed with a final sigh of a breath as she pulled away knowing that he had calmed enough to be Peeta not the Capitol's creation. When she moved away slightly and slipped a bit of hair that had escaped her braid back behind her ear, the baker caught sight of the flecks and streaks of paint that crossed her face. Grabbing her shaking hand carefully in his he leaned forward with exhausted blue eyes examining the marks. "Did I..?" He paused believing he had done the unthinkable as he had not noticed the shattered brush on the floor a little ways away. Reaching her other hand up to her face she ran trembling fingers across its panes only to remove her hand and find paint not blood there.

"No it's just paint, see?" Sticking out her hand the boy pulled away like a terrified wild animal when a human tried to pet it. He forgot he was holding her other hand however and she was pulled along with him, it took him only a second to realize this and when he did he relaxed but not completely, his muscles were still tense and ready to go if the need arose.

"But I could have…I could have…" He trailed off as his mind wandered into terrifying images of what he could have done, if that hadn't been paint, if she hadn't calmed him down, and he probably would have continued had she not interrupted his thoughts.

"But you didn't." Katniss reassured him giving his hand, which was oddly enough still in hers, a squeeze.

"But I could." Peeta corrected her pulling his hand away and looking at her with his big blue eyes watery, wide, and scared, "I couldn't live with myself if I did."

"Yes, you could hurt me but I could hurt you too." She chuckled, "I'm mentally unstable remember? Anyone of the victors, excuse me survivors, could because of the games **now we're torn, torn, torn apart** by all the memories." Taking a breath it took all she had to push away the memories of Snow dying, Coin with an arrow in her chest, Prim blown to bits, Finnick begging for death as the mutts ate him, Boggs death by mines, Wiress floating in the water, Mags writhing from the fog, the man from District 11 at the Victory Tour, Cato and the mutts, and Rue with a spear going straight through her bird cage chest, "But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to have relationships just because **there's nothing we can do** to completely fix ourselves." It only took her a moment to realize that the words coming out of her mouth now weren't hers but the advice of a great man who had told her this via a dream. "We don't know if we have much longer here and I don't want to waste that time. Every moment would be wasted if it's not spent with the people that I love, those that make me a better person."

"Do I make you better?" His question didn't surprise her but the baker was shocked when she nodded and smiled back.

"You always have, and you always will." She paused once again to pull a circular object out of her pants pocket. Placing it in his hand she smiled at him as he looked on in surprise, "You've always been there for me through all my crazy issues, now it's my turn to be here for you."

"You kept it?" The young man grinned as he rolled the smooth, cold, black pearl across his palm remembering when he'd given it to her, luckily they hadn't tampered with that memory as far as he knew. "I gave this to you during the Quarter Quell, real or not real?"

"Real, of course. It kept me grounded when they took you from me. Now I'm giving it back so that it can ground you too." Her smile made him smile back; his smile made him look more and more like the boy with the bread she had known and he was reverting back to as the days and weeks went by.

"Thank you Katniss," The young man paused while checking his watch, a new one called a digital watch, after the games he could not bring himself to wear a regular watch after the torturous arena. "It's getting late and I need to get home and sleep some before the nightmares come."

"What do you mean you're leaving me?" She shook her head at him, "How can I help you if you leave?" Though it was a fairly obvious fact that she pointing out, he still looked at her wondering where she was going with this exactly.

"I can't stay here, I could hurt you." He repeated weakly sounding like a broken record as he shook his head causing his blonde curls to bounce every which way.

"Don't start with that crap again. Just stick to the basic concept of letting me help you and let go of the rest." Chuckling the boy earned a feigned annoyed look, she hadn't heard him laugh in so long that she had thought he might have actually forgotten how. "This isn't that funny, so what's the fuss about?"

"The comforting thing used to be my job." His continued chuckles made it impossible for her not to grin, he still did know how to laugh she realized with relief.

"Well I'm your new replacement for tonight so listen up. You and I are going to go to my room and get some nightmare and flashback free sleep. There will not be another word about hurting one another and I promise to help you if you have another flashback. I'll bring you back here, back home, back to reality, deal?"

"Deal." The boy said uncertainly as he was pulled upstairs by the lithe huntress gripping onto his hand for dear life. However he woke up the next morning from a nightmare and flashback free rest, the first since being hijacked, and found Katniss with her hand still in his and her face buried into the crook of his neck. Looking at her sound asleep he suddenly realized how broken this girl truly was when awake, how much she didn't want to admit that she needed him to hold her as much as he needed her to hold him. After realizing this, Peeta never again argued with Katniss about this arrangement, how could he? As broken creatures themselves needed other broken creatures to put themselves and others back together, Katniss and Peeta needed each other in the same way. "Stay with me broken girl." He whispered aloud a few minutes before those big gray eyes fluttered open and the huntress again returned to a state where she could hide her brokenness even from him, a broken human, same as she. "Stay with me, the broken boy, so we can become whole again."


	13. Chapter 13

**Just let me go we'll meet again soon**

**Now wait, wait, wait for me**

"Ladies first." Iris Adais, the Capitol representative for District 4 began as she always did but with unusual sadness in her voice and watery eyes behind purple contacts. Reaching her hand into the bowl, she pulled out a piece of paper and upon opening it after she reached the microphone she winced. "Annie Cresta." She read off the paper and the woman who carried that title turned to look at the purple wig wearing, purple eyed, and yellow dressed up woman with absolute horror reflected in her own sea green eyes.

"No. No. No!" Finnick murmured under his breath as the sudden fear he felt balled up in his chest and froze him to where he stood amongst the male victors, unable to move as he was completely petrified with fear of losing her.

"Volunteer erm em!" Mags cried out her old, knowing cerulean blue eyes flashing and her words garbled by the stroke she had had three years ago. Pointing to her own thin chest with a gnarled finger, Mags finally managed to get out, "Me!" causing Iris' face to fall even further. Annie reached out her own thin arms and wrapped them around Mags as her body shook with sobs and it took another victor, Celestia Wright, to gently unhook her grip on the old woman so that Mags could walk up and take her place beside Iris. The sixty year old victor stepped away from them as Celestia held Annie as she sobbed into the woman's dress.

"And for the boys." Iris continued with quiet tears streaming down her cheeks and her voice quavering dangerously as she walked over to the boys bowl and pulled out another name. Finnick already knew what the paper said before she'd even unfolded it, he and Annie had absolutely terrible luck and the odds had never been in either of their favors.

"Finnick Odair." He mouthed at the same time as Iris read it off minus the sob that followed her statement. The man paused waiting for the cry of some other victor volunteering in his place, a cry that he was sure was never going to be said and he was not proven wrong. Instead he watched as Annie began to cry even harder and he was forced to go and stand beside Mags wearing his fake Capitol smile. The smile hid the hurt he'd thought had healed because there was Annie and he was losing her, the girl he'd sworn to protect.

The rest of the event went by in a blur and soon he found himself standing in the waiting room with his parents, the Crestas, little Remy, and Annie, his dear sweet Annie. The two men had watery eyes but neither allowed themselves to let go and cry, the women on the other hand were openly sobbing and Remy looked pretty close to losing it too. Annie sat in a chair a little ways away still crying and sniffling but otherwise remained unmoving as the rest of the chaos that was goodbye ensured.

"They said you'd be safe Finn, they promised!" His mother, Reese, sobbed into his father's, Maverick's, shoulder before she looked at her youngest son with her sky blue eyes flashing with anger through the pain.

"I know mom but it's the Capitol and you don't deny the Capitol." Finnick pointed out as he tried desperately to focus on everything but the undeniable urge to cry tears he needed to hold back. Both his mother and Mrs. Cresta, who had been wringing her hands in nervousness and the panic of losing the only stabilizer in her daughter's life, launched themselves at him and hugged him tight. The twenty four year old heart throb of the capitol grunted when they hit him and had to take a few steps back to steady himself. Soon their fathers moved in placing hands on his shoulders and Remy squirmed between the two mothers as he too wrapped his skinny twelve year around arms around Finnick's middle.

"Easy now, easy now. This won't be forever. You guys have to **just let me go we'll meet again soon**." The victor tried to calm them all enough to say goodbye to each individually. Both his parents and Annie's parents tried to control their emotions which made it easier but Remy's goodbye was one Finnick never forgot.

"Please come home Finny." He begged and he once again enveloped the young man in a hug as Remy's slender frame shook like a leaf. "Please, promise me that you'll try." His pleas were drenched with the tears he'd finally given up on holding back. They spilled unwillingly from his sea green eyes, the ones so similar to his sister's.

"Of course, I promise to try, Remy. I promised to teach you how to fish with a trident and net, right?" The younger boy nodded uncertainly with his eyes red and puffy and the tears flowing constantly now accompanied by sniffles. "Well now I have to come back don't I? Can't be known for breaking promises." The young man joked as his own eyes pricked with tears and he ruffled the boy's light brown hair. The peacekeepers chose this inopportune time to come barging in and pull everyone away and out the door as Remy and his mother screamed in protest, they hadn't gotten to hug him goodbye. Those peacekeepers didn't care however the one that remained was older and still held something akin to compassion in his heart.

"Can I stay just a moment more?" Annie squeaked and the older man nodded sadly, he knew both of them well from having to walk them both to the train that had led to them remaining the sole survivors of twenty three other kids and a terrible bloodbath. He closed the door behind him as he walked back outside and as soon as the door had clicked closed the twenty two year old girl was in his arms with sobs wracking her tiny form.

"Annie." He moaned her name as she reached his embrace and the two broken creatures held each other as both stood there shaking with sobs. He may have managed to be strong for them but around her, he couldn't hide the truth that was the hurt, and neither could she.

"You have to come home Finn, I need you." She breathed out her request in a whisper as she shook with the quiet sobs and his button down grew steadily wetter with every one of her salty tears.

"I want to, I want to so badly Annie, my brave, sweet girl. I know I told them that they needed to let go **but now wait, wait, wait for me**, please Annie. I'm going to try my best to come home, I swear it, to come home to you." He swore pressing his lips to hers in one last soft, sweet kiss.

"I'll wait, just come home." She swore trying to put on a smile through the tears but she failed and instead just wrapped him up in a hug for the last time for heaven only knows how long. "Come home." She repeated desperately as a different uncaring peace keeper came in and pulled her roughly away forcing her away and shoving him back preventing him from following her out the door.

"I will Annie, I'll come home, I'll come home to you." He promised the wooden door as it slammed roughly against his hands scrapping them enough to lead bloody hand prints on the door as he leaned against it for support. "I promise."


	14. Chapter 14

**Please hang around**

**I'll see you when I fall asleep**

Some days were harder than others, Annie decided as she found herself sitting there not knowing what day it was, wearing the same clothes she wore yesterday, and holding a crying screaming baby Ren. The memories constantly bombarded her all the time, but she could handle it most days, just not today. She tried her best to make it through the day and whispered Finn's mantra for her over and over again in her head and at times aloud, "It's okay. I'm safe now. They're only memories, they can't hurt you; Finnick won't let them hurt you." But today it just wasn't enough when Annie found herself in a rocking chair with tears streaming down her cheeks, memories of the games she'd participated in, and her baby Ren still crying. "Finn, please." Annie pleaded and suddenly he was there floating beside her as her eyes opened unleashing more tears joining the river that was already flooding down her face, "I need you know."

"I'm here." His ghost replied, "It's okay, I'm here now." Her sea green eyes caught sight of the phantom and unlike ninety percent of the people who see a ghost, she sighed in relief and smiled through the tears. The ghost that was Finnick smiled back at her and continued grinning as he looked down at his baby boy.

"Ren, for rebirth, am I right?" He asked in an attempt to distract her and earned a smile that meant that he had succeeded.

"Yes, it's from an old language that Mags had in a name book in her home. It was highlighted and it said French beside it, Beetee supposes that it is from a language pre-Panem Capitol. I liked it because it fits and it connects him to Mags, not to mention it fits his generation being part of the rebirth of our country." Annie explained as she held the boy, who was starting to quiet down and sleep, closer to her, "He helps me too, grounds me. He's been my rebirth too, a rebirth of being strong." She paused and leaned back with an exhausted sigh, "It helps but some days like today it's so hard, almost too hard. **Please hang around**, and keep me grounded today too." Finn nodded as she stood up to go get Ren's bottle as the boy started to cry again. Walking up and down slowly rocking the boy until he quieted down as Finnick floated beside her.

"You're a great mom Annie," He reassured her, "and I think you're doing alright, you're just tired. Maybe some help might make it easier for you?" The ghost's suggestion was accompanied by a knowing smirk that she knew well from all the jokes and pranks he'd used to cheer her up when he was alive. His sea green eyes sparkled and looked for the first time in a long time, like he was actually happy. "I love the name and I'm sure when I tell Mags about it she will as well." Still grinning the ghost cocked his head listening to noises beyond her range of hearing and laughed knowingly.

As if he couldn't have more perfect timing, the door bell rang in time to his laugh. Annie, who had just gotten Ren to finally calm down and had finally found time to pull back her hair and put on a clean pair of long dark blue pants, a gray button down, glanced down the stairs towards the closed door and wondered who it could possibly be. Giving the ghost a quizzical look, the widow went over to the crib and picked up baby Ren, who had surprisingly remained silent, and walked downstairs towards the blue door. Finnick floated beside the still confused woman, while he continued to grin.

"Dammit Peeta, I can't get the key to work!" She heard Katniss cursing on the other side of the door. Peeta's chuckle followed the District 12 girl's mutterings and the clank of metal, which was the key not fitting in the lock.

"Calm down Katniss, the key is just upside down." His smooth voice replied lacking the pain and hurt that it had held for so long from all the hijacked memories coming upon him every moment of every day. Surprisingly they both sounded happier than they had the last time she'd seen them.

"Aren't you going to let them in?" Finnick asked his form shimmering as he began to fade away, he could only stay visible in the world of the living for so long. Annie nodded as he became more translucent than usual. "Just remember I was right."

"Sure, sure Finn." She replied sarcastically before turning and catching his sea green eyes before he completely faded into invisibility, "**I'll see you when I fall asleep**." Taking the door knob in her free hand she felt Finnick's cold hand squeeze her shoulder and smiled at the invisible phantom who was always there for her whether she saw him or not. The sudden movement startled the two former victors to the point that when she opened the door she was greeted by their fighting stances. Katniss had an arrow notched on her bow looking rather fierce while Peeta had his fists up and stood in a fighting stance slightly behind the much more terrifying form of his girlfriend.

"Annie!" The nineteen year old cried joyously as he stepped out from behind the huntress, "It's so good to see you."

"Surprise." Katniss grinned as she replaced the arrow in her quiver and swung the bow back over her shoulder. "We meant to surprise you but you must've heard me fighting with the key or when Peeta ran into the bell."

"Bell beats baker and the key beats Katniss." Peeta informed the twenty five year old woman as Katniss smacked his arm good naturedly. Annie smiled at her younger friends, the ones who had helped Finn, and now were trying to help her. "Anyways we just came to help you out some for the next couple of days if you needed, or even wanted, our assistance." He paused and grinned wider as he picked up a box that he had placed down before attempting to open the door and being surprised by it opening without him using the key."Oh and happy birthday!" The mother gasped, she'd forgotten her own birthday, she really was too busy.

"Thank you." She smiled at the two, "Why don't you two come on inside." Putting on her brave face she led the couple into the kitchen where Peeta opened up the box to reveal the cake that she knew he'd decorated himself, she recognized it from the designs she'd seen at her wedding. The blonde baker smiled and took baby Ren out of her arms to allow her to blow out her candles. "Thank you both, for everything." Katniss smiled at her as she cut the cake and passed her a piece.

"It was all Katniss' idea." Peeta admitted as he came and stood next to the younger woman who blushed slightly.

"I wish I could claim it, but it was truly Finn's idea, he told me in a dream." The nineteen year old with the gray Seam eyes admitted as she cut two more pieces and sat down next to the widow who was smiling knowingly; Finn that sly old dog.


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey!**

**Don't listen to a word I say**

After returning to District 12 following her assignation of President Coin and the death of the still laughing ex-President Snow. Katniss hadn't been the same whether it was being plagued constantly by the graphic nightmares as she slept on her couch. Normally, a person with the patchwork of skin that this girl had would be suggested to sleep on a bed due to the pain from their broken and scar tissue skin that was still healing. Unlike most patients, the patchwork skin that covered her body was not the most painful wound that she woke screaming in the middle of the night to its aching pain. That wound was her heart and not in the heart attack sense. Her heart felt so broken from all the deaths she'd seen from Prim to Finnick to Boggs to…she couldn't go down that road today. Today was the first day she hadn't been in a nearly catatonic state that Haymitch referred to as zoning out whenever he took the time to visit and wasn't drunk as hell, which had been two times in the month since she'd gotten back.

But her heart wasn't the topic Greasy Sae had made note of the most, it was the nightmares that had occurred night and night as the doom-filled dreams took flight in her mind and seeped into her waking hours making them hell as well. The chef and housekeeper worried greatly about the girl who seemed to have given up completely on life to the point of never leaving the kitchen except to stumble to the couch to awake screaming. After that the girl who had deteriorated to a frail frame that had her very unclean clothes hanging on it revealing her bird cage frame even more so than her emaciated form had appeared when the boy with the bread had saved her at age eleven. Dark circles remained under her Seam gray eyes as her dark hair stuck out of her braid hap hazardously.

This went on for a good two months or more before Peeta Mellark returned and Sae noticed a change in Katniss' behavior. Aside from leaving that catatonic state, the girl began to eat more, and the circles under her eyes started to fade away. At one point she caught Katniss coming back in with her bow in hand and red cheeks from the cold and exertion after a day of going out with the intent to hunt. Perhaps the boy with the bread was going to save the huntress yet again from the brink of self-destruction.

"**Hey!**" Peeta hollered as he walked inside carrying a basket of bread and a bundle of brushes and paints under one arm. His blonde hair bounced about and his sapphire big blue eyes appeared uncharacteristically vacant of the usual emotion that had filled the boy prior to the hijacking. The huntress with her gray eyes free of dark circles serving as the visible markings of insomnia, and her actually washed dark hair was back in a braid. She smiled a little and this smile surprised both Peeta and Sae, she hadn't smiled in so long that both were taken aback by this motion of happiness.

"Hey Peeta, ready to get started?" She asked holding the memory book they promised to work on in her hands. Not only was it Dr. Aurelius' idea for making it easier for both mentally unstable patients now living in District 12. He believed that by documenting their memories they might be finally able to let them go for good and move on.

"Sure." He replied unsurely at the sight of her grin and the memory book. His response diminished her excitement but she still smiled slightly as the boy, despite his fears he followed her into the living room and the two set about getting to work. The plan was that Katniss would dictate and Peeta would write and draw, somehow the boy got all the work however considering her writing skills looking like chicken scratch and his being legible, it soon became obvious why he was taking the pen to the page for this project. Today they were focusing on the most deaths of Finnick Odair and Boggs, because despite Prim had died sooner than Finn and Boggs, neither was quite ready to deal with that onslaught of painful emotions yet.

"Finnick Odair." She said and then paused to think of a good description to use as a definition before the story she was supposed to relive about him and then proceed to let go of it by saying it aloud in a way that could not be taken back and held in to continue to hurt the person with the painful memory. "Was a victor, tribute, ally, soldier, son, husband, friend, and husband-to-be." Katniss dictated before pausing as Peeta caught up. "He – " The huntress began and paused as she realized something and leaned back against the couch with a deep sigh of resignation, "This is harder than I thought." The boy surprised her with a similarly unseen up until this point smile and a squeeze of her hand.

"It's okay, we don't have to do it all in one day." He pointed out before he felt a shinning hijacked memory begin to descend over his mind and he pulled away from the only other person as mentally unstable as he was. "I feel one coming on so stay away and **don't listen to a word I say**." His warning did nothing to stop her and instead she moved closer and took his hands in hers.

"Stay with me." She whispered and the boy looked at her in surprise as a calm peace filled him rather than the much anticipated and much feared flashback. Blinking like an owl he looked at her slack jawed and was too startled to remove his hands from her grasp.

"Always." He finally managed and he looked up meeting her gray eyes with her big blue eyes wide in fascination at this phenomenon, "You made it go away." The huntress smiled back knowingly and squeezed his hands tightly and reassuringly in hers.

"It worked once so I figured it would work again." Her voice was softer as Sae caught the familiar tone she had used to use with Prim or even her own slightly slow daughter but mostly with wounded animals like Prim's goat, Lady, or even the ever-so-hated, or claimed to be, skinny mongrel of a cat, Buttercup. Sae decided as she realized Peeta was her new project and her way to fix both him and herself. It gave her something to focus on and this would invariably help her fix herself. The housekeeper smiled at the pair as the girl wrapped her arms around the broken boy in an awkward hug, maybe it wasn't just Katniss trying to fix them both but a desire to rediscover the boy with the bread that, even in her denial, she had cared for all along.

**Sorry about taking longer than my usual day or so to post this. Been a little sick lately, stupid winter weather crossing the United States making everything cold and rainy and blah and giving me a stupid sore throat and cold. Scientists out there I appologize for my clearly incorrect reasoning for getting a cold, but it makes sense to my cold syrup and cough drop filled head and stomach which is wrong too but deal with it extrememly nice and awesome readers who have left some great reviews so thanks for those too! :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey!**

**The screams all sound the same**

"Finnick!" her voice screamed out forcing his head to fly up from where he was helping the nineteen archer from where she had fallen after shooting the bird that had been screaming like her blonde pigtail-braid-wearing little sister. His sea green eyes searched frantically for the panicked sounding twenty three year old victor that should not, no could not, be in this playground of death that a bunch of bored Capitol cronies who wanted to have a bit of fun at the expense of twenty four victors who had already survived their nearly fatal tricks once prior as children. "Finnick help me!" She screeched in absolute terror, a noise he recognized from when she'd been tortured during her games.

_The female tribute from District 2 had managed to catch her, bind her hands tight by rope they'd found in the Cornucopia amongst the supplies. Then they were trying to get her, the weakest of the four careers who were still alive, to beg for death and force Sanders, the other District 4 tribute, to watch her death before they killed him too as he was hurt and a handicap as well. This arena had no use for fishermen and swimmers in their opinion, and they had yet to be proven wrong as of yet. By the time Sanders got back from where he'd gone down to the lake to get water, the two tributes were absolutely cackling as the girl threw another punch to the girl who already had a cut and swollen lip, swollen eye that was sure to be black by morning, and was crouched on the ground in pain from multiple blows to the stomach. Finnick had only been able to stand by looking on with his fists clenched in pain, he'd lost 7 tributes thus far since becoming a mentor but none had gone down like this. Sanders had taken in the scene and his thin tan body straightened painfully as he tried to stand with his badly busted up and likely enough dislocated shoulder and bruised ribs. The boy glared at them and dropped the buckets his odd shock of red hair and freckles standing out in the bright sunlight as his even odder dark brown eyes glared at the other boy._

_"__**Hey!**__ Stop it Marcus!" He ordered the younger, stronger, unhurt boy who just grinned at him like a demented feline intent on playing with its food before killing it. Marcus stalked forward with his sword in hand as his partner, Claudia, followed him leaving Annie, the expert knot tier, alone to untie the binding ropes that had her at the pair's mercy._

_"Oh Sandy boy, I have no intention of that." The dark haired boy with the shocking blue eyes and extremely sharp teeth barred in a grin as he felt Claudia behind him, two against one made the odds not in this District 4 fisher's favor. It was to his deep surprise when he felt the girl with the ponytail fall to the dirt behind him and the red haired boy smirk at him through the pain from his ribs and shoulder. Whirling around he was dumbstruck by the image of the sea green eyed girl glaring at him her chest heaving painfully from the exertion of untying herself and hitting the District 2 with a rock, effectively knocking her out._

_"The odds aren't in your favor now are they, Marcus?" Sanders smirked looking absolutely wicked as Annie stumbled around and joined her fellow District 4 tribute. The blue eyes of the other tribute turned icy cold as he laughed maniacally. _

_ "Think I can't handle two broken children who think they are heroes? Nice try!" He yelled as he lunged forward his sword shinning in the bright light. Annie, who was not dealing with broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder had quicker reflexes lacking the pain dulled pause that Sander's did, and had time to dive to the side while Sanders could only look on with wide dark brown eyes as the blade connected to his neck and went right on through to the side. Marcus chuckled with true blood lust in his eyes as Annie locked eyes with the unconnected head of her last connection to home and screamed a bloodcurdling cry of anguish, grief, and pain. "Your turn now girlie." The ice cold gaze of the last standing boy settled on the girl who was currently curled up on the ground screaming continuously. If not for the sudden onslaught of water that awoke her from her breakdown and startled the killer into backing away as the Arena filled and he ran off in search of higher ground with the girl who was still as freaked out as could be on his heels after one sad look back at Sanders sans head lying prone on the ground not too far from the incapacitated girl who was not getting out on time. Finnick felt himself looking on in horror as he watched the oncoming water sweep across the arena sweeping up anything in its path and leaving, in the end, the mentally broken girl to be the only victor; more like only survivor of a hell she would never leave mentally even as she made it out physically._

His thought process was broken as he heard himself yelling at the top of his lungs over and over again, "ANNIE!" Ignoring the girl pounding through the brush behind him hollering at him about how they were only Jabberjays but he didn't care. This time he could save the girl who needed him, and nothing, no nothing could stop him. Branches ripped at his bare arms and thin undershirt, leaves caught in his bouncing bronze locks, but the Capitol's heartthrob was unaware of such distractions. All that was on his mind was the remaining image of the bruised, bleeding, tied up, woman with the dark, curly hair and larger than life sea green eyes being tortured. "ANNIE!" He screamed yet again with his hoarse voice echoing back to him as he imagined people hurting the woman he'd sworn to protect and the person Mags had died for. Suddenly he burst through the last of the vines and into a clearing filled not with the tortured form of Annie Cresta but a Jabberjay flitting around in the tall tree above.

Anger replaced the fear that had made his heart pound even faster than it had from his uphill dash through the thick forest and it beat an odd pattern that resounded in his ears. Yelling unintelligible curses, the desperate man threw his trident to the ground in utter rage as he circled the tree. Damn Snow, damn him for knowing his weakness, for knowing of the people he needed to protect. Katniss caught up to find him in this state and upon noting that the other victor was not going to be much help to her, she scaled the tree beside the Jabberjay's and shot it down so that it landed at his feet. Swinging to a lower branch, as in around five feet off the ground rather than twenty five, she leapt off and landed on the balls of her feet lightly before traversing back to where Finnick now was on his knees beside his trident and in front of the bird. Crouching down beside him, he looked up and caught sight of her hair also filled with leaves, her tank and shorts stained by berries and ripped in parts by the unrelenting fingers that were the branches of these dark forsaken trees.

"It's not real. It's not your…Annie." Katniss whispered being uncharacteristically reassuring until he revealed his sea green eyes still dilated, wide, and uncommonly panicked. This terrified her more than anything else, Finnick wasn't one to show fear often but when he did it had to be bad.

"No it's not Annie. But the voice was hers. Jabberjays mimic what they hear. Where did they get those screams, Katniss?" His pale face and nearly gone voice whispered as she backed away from the man in fear, this was undeniable evidence for her of what she didn't want to admit and his response was forcing her to.

"Oh, Finnick, you don't think they…" The girl whimpered back as he face paled as well and she became unable to voice the rest of her terrible thought.

"Yes. I do. That's exactly what I think." Finnick stated emotionlessly feeling rather robotic as he barely made note of Katniss collapsing to her knees as well beside him. "**The screams all sound the same** and only Snow would, only Snow would do this to another human being, especially the ones we both need to protect." She didn't hear the last words but still leapt up upon hearing a deep male yelp of agony and tried to leap up and run to save him. "No! It's not him!" The twenty four year old man tried to explain as he pulled her away and reassure her even as he heard the cries of his mother begin to ring out. While trying to ignore the cries and screams of the Jabberjays impersonate his loved ones, he was vaguely aware of saying things as he pulled her along but he was unaware of what they were as it was all he could do to keep moving and reach the figures of Peeta, Johanna, and Beetee materialize. Why aren't they coming to help the pained runners as the birds followed still screeching out their deathly cries.

Finnick saw Peeta's mouth opening and closing in some sort of yell just before he ran face first into some sort of clear boundary that was unharmed by Johanna's axe and Peeta's knife, if the marks on it meant anything, and was not electric like the one that had shocked the baker boy the day before. Katniss yelled as she too crashed into it and they were both flung backwards. Sticky, red blood gushed from his nose as the birds caught up and like sharks to the scent of blood circled around them as though they could smell their pain.

"Finny!" Remy's cries came from a bird to his right as it joined another bird who again started to use Annie's cries.

"Finn!" It cried with her voice as he curled up in a ball and clamped his hands over his ears like Annie did when the memories got too bad in her head. Vaguely he was aware of Katniss giving up on shooting the birds out of the trees and instead curled up beside him whimpering as they became the two broken heroes of the world that was the Quarter Quell and the pain that was this quarter of the clock.

"It's okay, she's safe now. They're only memories." He murmured over and over again as the cries of Mako, his parents, her parents, and even the dead tributes he'd failed to save like Sanders and Mags. "It's going to be okay. Annie is okay. Remy is okay. They're all okay." His voice was strangled slightly as he gritted it through his teeth and he felt a physical ache as his heart was ripped to shred by the pain caused by the Jabberjays recorded voices. In all his years as a forced sex slave for the Capitol to protect his family and friends, he had never been so hurt and that was because the people he'd sworn to protect were hurting because of him. Curling his knees up further into his chest, he felt wet, salty, tears wash some of the dried blood crusted on his face from his once gushing nose. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry for breaking my promise." Finally his choked voice got out as he realized that he was so beaten and broken that he couldn't ever be more shattered ever again nor put back together.

"Be strong." Mag's voice reverberated around his skull making him well aware that it was just his imagination.

"You didn't break your promise yet, just come home. You still can." Annie's voice continued softly in his thoughts and calmed him even as he knew it was just his mind playing tricks on him. It still made him feel better because it reminded him that he hadn't broken all his promises yet, he could indeed still come home to her.

"I promise," Finnick replied swearing to her, swearing to them all, "I have to hold it together." He murmured to himself as he played with the rope-like vine that was serving as his new belt and tied knots that oddly enough calmed him. "Have to stick together for her."

**Middle bit is direct quotes from ****Catching Fire**** at the Jabberjay scene as I do like to stick to the story as it was written and only add to it, not re-write it. Thanks for dealing with my long rant on Chapter 15, that was uncalled for and I appologize for that. **


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey!**

**Though the truth may vary**

**This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**

"Hey! Peeta!" Katniss whisper yelled to her husband standing in front of him as he slept lightly in the rocking chair beside their daughter's bed. He must have fallen asleep when getting Rue to calm down enough to sleep some. The chair had been made by Johanna Mason in a rare moment of compassion and joy when she'd heard that the Mellarks were finally going to have a baby, nearly fifteen years after getting married. Peeta, upon hearing his name, awoke with a start to find his wife looking at him with an entertained smile playing on her lips and one dark eyebrow arched over her gray Seam eyes. Stretching his still lean 6 foot 2 body, he blinked slowly looking for all the world like a blue eyed owl who had just woken up.

"Katniss?" He replied as he took in the sight of his wife in her olive green robe and her dark hair pulled back in the braid her mother had taught her all those years ago on Reaping Day, the day he finally got to meet her in a fatal turn of events. Hers had been the last voice he'd wanted to here as she volunteered for Prim, and his name following hers as the male tribute had made his heart sink even lower if that was possible; the odds had clearly not been in their favor that fateful day and hadn't been until after the fall of the President Snow-led empire that had been the Capitol. But today, that was only a mere memory as he smiled at her and the small-for-his-age three year old Finnick in her arms fast asleep. Still striving to return to complete wakefulness, it took him a moment to register this and in the meantime Katniss went and laid the boy down gently in his bed on the other side of the room and adjacent to Rue's. "Is Finnick okay?" Peeta asked sounding worried as his half awake mind tried to register why his wife had just carried the boy upstairs when he could have sworn the three year old had been in bed when he'd sat down an hour or so ago.

"Of course he's okay, the watchman," she paused to give him a purposeful look here, "seems to have fallen asleep on the job and he went downstairs to wait for that Santa Claus fellow that his Uncle Beetee insisted was going to be jumping out of the fire place tonight." Shaking her head at the idea of this, her husband stifled back a chuckle before she gave him another look and he grinned sheepishly.

"What can I say? This chair is way more comfortable on my old bones than I remember it being." The huntress shook her head again and tried to hide a smile at his response, she knew that he wasn't old and had many more years until he was.

"Alright, whatever you say old man. Guess this old man with his achy bones isn't going to be able to help old Santa out, eh?" She teased and the forty four year old leapt to his feet as if suddenly filled with a burst of energy.

"I suddenly feel young again!" He exclaimed in a whisper and gave her his million dollar smile, the one that could charm the mockingjays out of the trees in the same way only her singing voice and her late father's could. "It's a miracle!" Katniss tried her best to choke back a laugh and hid it in a broad grin that very few people had the good fortune to see. Leaning forward she kissed his cheek lightly and felt him smile in response as he took her tanner hand in his pale one that might have been the color of ice but was just as warm as the ovens he worked as a baker to her touch. The couple had to take the stairs slowly to compensate for Peeta's much stiffer prosthetic wearing leg but it still didn't take them long to reach the bottom where Annie Odair was waiting for them so that she could give them a hand with the Santa-duties. Her own little boy, Ren, wasn't so little anymore and had decided to stay home this year and take advantage of the few daylight hours to bring in a catch or two while his mother went to visit their old family friends the Mellarks. For an eighteen year old, he had determined that visiting a family with two young children was his idea of fun making this the first winter visit with his Aunt Katniss and Uncle Peeta that he had missed and they'd been going since the year he was born.

"This is so exciting." The forty-eight year old widow proclaimed as she met them at the bottom of the stairs with a smile on her face. That smile had been hard to come by for many years following her victory in the 70th Annual Hunger Games and had only come back thanks to Finnick, her husband. Everyone had been scared that with his death it would disappear again but having Ren around had made it stay and soon with the help of Peeta, Katniss, and other survivors it went from periodic at best to here to stay. "I wish Beetee had discovered this part of our land's history earlier so that Ren could have enjoyed it as much as your little Finnick and Rue will." She paused a moment and her sea green eyes took on a nostalgic shine before she continued, "My Finn would have loved it too." The Mellarks nodded in response, their late friend would have loved this holiday with his already mischievous nature and he would have undoubtedly made it unforgettable.

"He would have if he's anything like our Finnick sneaking out of bed under his sleeping father's watch and trying to sneak a glimpse of this Claus fellow." Katniss chuckled and Annie laughed as well in response causing her dark curls to bounce as her body shook with the hilarity of the situation.

"That boy really is a lot like my husband, you named him well." She replied when she caught a breath during her laughing spree. Slipping her hand out of her husband's grip, Katniss looped elbows with her friend and the two walked over, still giggling all the while like little schoolgirls, to the closet where all the presents from "Santa" were stored. Peeta followed shaking his head at the women's antics before all three of them set to work carrying the gifts out of the closet, the one Finnick and Rue never dreamed of looking in, and to the waiting tree.

"What's this?" Annie asked towards the end of the present pile as she picked up a canvas and turned it around to reveal a boat floating peacefully with nary a ripple over the waves as a sunset blazed in the background casting the two figures at the helm of the boat into shadows. The shadows depicted a slender young man, whose form and mannerisms appeared familiar to her, teaching a young skinny boy how to use a net. Along with the figures feeling familiar to her, the scene was absolutely, positively, no-doubt-about-it, depicting her home in District 4, or what was once District 4 and now fell under the label of the Sea State. Her eyes floated downward to where the corner was lacking a signature but instead had, penned cleanly in Peeta's hand, Though the truth may vary this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore.

"It was meant to be a Christmas gift." The forty four year old explained as he walked over and took the painting out of her hands gently only to face the image towards her. "That didn't work out to well, did it?" Using the quick fingers of an artist he tied a bow on it and grabbed a pen and wrote on a tag before tying it on along with the bow. Leaning forward in front of him, Annie read the words with wide and startled sea green eyes.

"From Finnick, to his Annie." She read aloud and looked out the younger man with surprise and questions still reflected in her eyes. "How?"

"He was the one who sent me the image in a dream and Katniss and Jo both urged me to give it to you after putting a bit of paint on paper and recording it for you. The words on the corner are his also." Peeta explained still smiling sheepishly as she nodded. She recognized the phrase from when she'd been terrified and absolutely petrified after having been saved by Finn and realizing that she'd won the 70th Hunger Games simply because she could swim the longest. Then the words had calmed her, and they still did today as she looked at the painting and touched the wedding ring on her left hand with her right pointer and middle fingers.

"Thank you." The widow looked up at them with a smile through the tears of happiness pricking at her sea green eyes now bearing pale and light wrinkles as a slight memoriam for making it this long and the memories that came along with that. "It's the best Christmas gift I could have ever been given." She continued and the couple, Peeta with an arm looped tight around his wife's waist, smiled back at her as she turned around and placed the gift under the tree. Touching the necklace around her neck lightly as the charm bounced from her movement, enclosed within was a photograph of Finnick smiling at her and waving his trident, a photo of Remy at age twelve holding a fish he'd just caught, and one of Ren in elementary school missing a tooth and holding a picture of her, him, and a ghost behind them that was Finn. "Thank you Finn, thank you for this reminder of you and Remy and making this the best first Christmas ever." Looking closely at the two shadows she could have sworn the figures turned towards her and wave at her in response.

**Sorry for taking so long to upload this part :( I blame mid-terms but now those are over and done so expect this tale done by Christmas if all things go as planned! Thank you for the lovely reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter just as much as those previous.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Don't Listen to a Word I Say**

**Hey!**

Cold metal pressed painfully against his pale, goosebump covered flesh as the blond nineteen year old awoke with a painful and extremely startled gasp. His bright blue eyes flew open, one wider than the other, thanks to the black and blue ugliest of ugly bruises surrounding his left one. Swiping a pale pink tongue across his sore lips, he found a cut that tasted of dried blood that truly grossed the young man out to no end. Lying there he tried, futilely, to determine where he was only to realize that all he could wrap his mind around was the fact that he was strapped to a medical table of some sort and only wearing a thin pair of shorts that didn't feel like his and further grossed him out. Thinking back the last he could remember was the Quarter Quell and Katniss. Katniss! Turning his head quickly back and forth, he looked frantically for the girl with her dark hair in a braid and her gray Seam eyes flashing as they always did whenever he was too loud.

"Katniss!" Peeta's hoarse voice cried out sounding weak and pitiful, even to him, from lack of good use over the past few hours, or mayhap even days. How long had he been out for? "KATNISS!" He tried to roar her name but it instead came out as a hoarse and trembling warble with no response, especially not the one he was dying to hear. Instead of yelling again he fell back against the table with a gasp and saw stars and spots floating around his head wildly. Apparently, even yelling was exerting more energy than his weak body could produce at the present time and in his present state.

"So you're awake then and with working vocal cords I hear, eh lover boy?" Johanna Mason murmured from where she was strapped down a mere table over. He must not have noticed her in his terrified state and his desperate search for the huntress that he loved and he was starting to get the feeling that she might actually love him back. It hit him only a moment later that the nickname was the one that the Careers, specifically that blasted Cato, had called him during the 74th Games. He'd only done it to keep Katniss safe for a longer period of time but the scar and his prosthetic were still the painful scars he carried from that venture. Was Johanna just like those Careers? Willing to partner up with anyone until they'd served their purpose and then maim them to the point of it being nearly fatal? For example, Cato had tried to kill him when he'd helped Katniss get away. Would Johanna try the same tactic?

"Yeah I'm awake." Peeta replied trying to sound gruff and formidable but failing as his hoarse voice cracked worse than it has as a pre-teen going through the throes of puberty. "Where are we?"

"Who knows!" The axe-wielding victor replied with a shadow of a malicious smirk dancing across her lips and her gold eyes with their green flecks. Glancing over at the boy who cringed at her answer and was covered in dried bloody cuts, and ugly bruises that screamed pain in their black and blue shades, Johanna felt something akin to pity for Peeta and tried to comfort him a little in her own way. "She's safe." She continued in a softer tone and earning an incredulous and slightly confused blue-eyes-rimmed-by-black-and-blue-look. "Your Katniss, I mean." Surprise soon fled from his facial expression and was filled with the hope he was trying to suppress and afraid to feel too soon only to have it dashed by reality and the odds not being in their favor again.

"Really?" Haymitch had kept one of his promises in the end it seemed but it still ached to let her go even so. "Then what about us?" The baker continued and Johanna shook her head sadly, Peeta tried not to look surprised at this show of an emotion other than anger.

"I don't rightly know. Probably torture us some though." Sucking air through his teeth in response, the teen allowed this to slowly sink only to realize that he didn't have much time to do so when he heard a whimper on his other side. Turning his head quickly he caught sight of a young woman who couldn't have been more than twenty and had dark curly hair (that made him think only of how it was the same or close to Katniss' hair) and sea green eyes that met his. She was clearly utterly terrified by the precarious situation she was in and despite having been sure they'd never met; she looked oddly familiar to him.

"Is he alright, Jo? Is he alive?" The woman whimpered again and turning his head about he caught sight of the warrior woman sigh. She must have put two and two together if her closed golden eyes and worry lines on her forehead meant anything.

"I believe so Annie, he's not here for sure so he must be. He'll come and save you soon though, Finn doesn't break his promises." Jo replied with her voice softer than before when she'd been dealing with him and his own missing love. Annie, she must be Annie Cresta! He remembered watching her games and having heard about how Finnick was her mentor. She had only won thanks to being the best swimmer out of all the tributes but it had shocked her into being what most called mad and the kindest called mentally unstable. Then again, out of all the victors who wasn't mentally unstable? This must have been the girl that Finnick loved, the Annie who made him a better person and the one Mags had volunteered for.

"Either way." The warrior continued still using her softer voice. It was because of this Annie person and the way that Jo treated her that Peeta decided to trust the warrior despite his previous misgivings. "Either way, the three of us can't tell them anything, understand? If they do come to torture us, as I expect they will, then **don't listen to a word I say**. I don't want you two to believe the lies I have to tell as well."

"**Hey!**" Growled the peacekeeper as she walked into glare are them all looking comfortably cozy in her own white uniform and warmer than the three freezing victors wearing clothes from whom they had no idea. "Pipe down!" She ordered forcefully and the three victors nodded as her icy gaze hit them all and making it painfully obvious that she meant business. Nodding the three tried their best to look obedient and sincere, apparently they succeeded as she gave them one final look and marched back out resting one hand on her gun and the other on the cuffs on her belt. Once she had left, Peeta glanced over at Jo who was looking back at him and catching sight of Annie turned their way as well. Undoubtedly the warrior woman was trying to ensure that they would do as she said and had a lot invested in that response because when the affirmative nods came she relaxed and cracked a smile in relief.

"Good. Now get some rest while you still can. I don't know what tomorrow will bring but I doubt it'll be easy or comfortable either way." She whispered before closing her eyes and chuckling, "Enjoy it while you can, tomorrow we'll be entering a new Arena." Dropping her voice a few decibels so that Annie couldn't hear she continued. "And this time no one may make it out alive even if we're lucky and fight our hardest." Peeta shivered at the truth of her words and was glad Annie in her delicate state appeared not to have heard and was already trying to fall asleep. They all knew that sleep would be brief and filled with nightmares but they had to try because like Jo had said, they had no idea what tomorrow would bring and for all they knew, the nightmares might seem like wishes and dreams of happier times then. With the two women on either side of his bed-prison asleep, Peeta lay awake for awhile longer yet thinking only of the girl with her dark hair in a braid and those gray eyes he loved.

"Stay with me." Her familiar and desperate voice came back to him in a memory and he smiled as he closed his blue eyes.

"Always." He murmured back as he drifted off only thinking of the way that no matter the torture he would dry his best not to cave because he had to be strong, for her.


	19. Chapter 19

**The screams all sound the same**

**Hey!**

"Mags?" A timid voice called into the house of the eldest living victor in District 4, the back door to her home had been unlocked and when she had knocked the door had opened of its own accord. Upon hearing her name and the door creak open, Magpie "Mags" Fisher poked her head out the doorway of her kitchen earning a yelp of surprise from the shy voiced woman. The woman appeared to have nearly jumped out of her skin at Mags' sudden appearance and now was wearing a sheepish look with her big sea green eyes cast downwards in embarrassment at her reaction that had left her breathing like a steam engine as her heart beat slowed from the thousand miles an hour clip that it had taken on. "Sorry Mags you scared me!"

"It's alright Annie; it's my fault for jumping out at you." The fifty-seven year victor replied kindly and used a gentle tone of voice to calm the younger woman. Just from looking at her, one would be hard pressed to find this grandmother-like figure to be a survivor and killer in a bloody battle that culminated with the death of twenty-three other children. If it were not for the cunning look her dark brown eyes could adopt in certain situations perhaps no one in their right mind would have believed it. Those dark brown eyes and that matching cunning look were both ones that Annie knew quite well just from spending a spot of time with Mags' great-nephew Sanders during their Games. The only difference between Great-Aunt Mags and Sanders was his shock of bright red hair versus what had been a faded and dirty blonde gone gray with age and wisdom. Shaking her head of such memories as Sanders, she could not do with a panic attack from the memories overwhelming her today especially, Annie focused on the matter that she had come to address, the meat and potatoes of her visit if you wish.

"Can I ask you a question?" Her voice, much steadier than when the door had blown in spooking her, asked and Mags nodded. The older woman gestured towards the kitchen she was standing by and gave the girl a smile that, unlike Finnick's when he was having a bad day, reached her muddy brown eyes.

"No problem Ann, I just have supper cooking in the oven." She began and it was right then the scent of the delicious fresh fish baking in the oven floated deliciously down the hall and made Annie's mouth begin to water in hunger even though she'd just ate a snack at her own home. "It's a lovely catch of Finnick's, one of his best if I might say so myself! Is it alright then if we palaver in there then?"

"Whatever works best for you Mags." The twenty year old replied pausing for a moment as she followed the older woman into the kitchen before continuing with her train of thought. "It was Finn actually that I wanted to talk about." Mags' ears pricked up at this as she thought about the twenty-two year old and twenty year old victors perhaps finally admitting that they had feelings for the other. Not only due to an attraction on a physical level, not to say that neither was unattractive as they both were extremely good-looking, but rather because they made the other better and they were helping each other to heal. Hoping that this was the case, Mags felt like the schoolgirl she had been pre-Games that had used to bubble over the latest gossip and had been the greatest matchmaker of all time, according to her tale she had set up her older brother with the girl that became Sander's grandmother. This, if it was happening, would have been a match made in heaven for both parties, this she knew, and would be a dream come true for both the broken young adults.

"Sure thing Ann, here take a seat." She offered her a worn old chair that was held up by a pile of books due to one leg being shorter than the rest. "It ain't much I suppose, but its home." The aging victor explained with a shrug and a smile as the girl sat down and she herself took the seat with a squeaky backboard that vocalized its complaints every time the sitter moved their back against it. Again, Mags living arrangements would come as a surprise because normally victors got a lovely spread and a far-too-large paycheck and none would live in a house or have furniture such as these two chairs. However, this came about because the older woman gave away any of her earnings that were not necessary to live on and it went to the poor starving kids in the streets. She was the reason that District 4's youth poverty rate had gone down and Annie's family had tried to follow her example but had not made near as big of an impact as of yet.

"And a lovely home you have." Annie replied with a smile and earned one of Mags' toothy grins in return. This woman had to be one of the better people who had become a victor over the past forty-seven years since she had won the games.

"You like him don't you?" She pressed with a knowing, and admittedly less toothy grin, and that slightly mischievous sparkle in her deep brown eyes. The girl blushed in response and squirmed about in her seat as much as she could without falling over causing her dark curls to bounce to and fro across her back. Ignoring the younger woman's clear discomfort, Mags propped her elbows on the table looking like the bubbly schoolgirl she felt inside rather than the fifty eight year old woman feeling her oats that she really was. After a bit, Annie nodded still looking rather embarrassed but willing to talk even as the blush still spread across her cheeks and she could barely raise her eyes from their downcast glance and sudden interest in the swirling tiles on the floor meant to resemble the sand and waves but having faded to the point of being mere splotches of color.

"I like the way he makes me feel safe even when I'm really anything but if the rumors I've heard are believable. But I don't know if I like him enough in that way to be in a secret relationship that's second to those one-night stands he has with all those Capitol-modified women." Mags sighed, she understood how this could be a huge issue for the morally upstanding girl in front of her, especially one who thought that this habit was so wrong, like the majority of Panem, mostly because she did not understand all that was going on at the moment.

"Finnick probably will forgive me for telling you this but I don't believe that Mr. President Snow will as I am not supposed to know this deep dark part of his dealings." Snow, unknown to the two women, was not about to forgive the aging victor for telling Annie this little business deal of sorts he had with the young man and would end up poisoning Mags a few weeks later not with the intent to kill but rather to give her a stroke that would extremely limit her for the rest of her days. Needless to say, it worked, pure and simple and it left Mags with the same brilliant mind but the lack of ability to communicate her ideas. "Snow puts him up to this, threatens all of the people Finn has promised to protect like his family, Mako, your family, and of course you and I. In the end, Finn always gives in to his demands for him to use his body as a way to gain favor in the Capitol for Snow. He gives in for fear of Snow using his refusal as an excuse to hurt those he loves and also because he will never break a promise to protect those who need him." Pausing for effect, and to take a sip of water, Mags heard Annie gasp as it finally hit what all the young man went through, just to keep them safe and keep his promises. "He suffers just as much as you do Ann, except he tries to hold it all in but in the end, **the screams all sound the same**. Now go make that boy happy, Ann, you both deserve to be happy." The younger of the two leapt up in response and nodded furiously with her dark curls bouncing in time before she rushed out the door and straight into the arms of the man she was looking for.

"**Hey!** Slow down Annie! Where's the fire?" He asked her with a smile on his face that didn't quite reach his sea green eyes as they looked down at her filled with concern for her well-being. Skidding to a stop a mere few inches from running smack dab into him, she paused only for a moment before launching herself into his arms. Wrapping them around him in a tight hug, the man returned the embrace with a smile that still didn't quite meet his eyes after getting over the surprise of her sudden show of emotion. "You okay Annie?" Normally, she only showed such emotion when something had gone terribly wrong. To his surprise the girl nodded at him with her sea green eyes free of the stormy clouds of memory that normally gave away when a near breakdown was at hand.

"I am now that you're here." Annie replied with a smile that wasn't in the least shy and Finnick grinned in response, a grin that actually reached his eyes more so than usual. "You've helped me through so much and for that I thank you. In return I know and I want to help you with your inner demons as well." The man absolutely beamed at her in response and held onto her tighter pressing his lips to her forehead as his sea green eyes closed in happiness.

"Promise to stay with me always. I need you because you make me better and make me feel like all that I do has a reason, and that's to keep you safe. I don't want him to hurt you like he hurt me." He whispered back and felt her smile into his shirtfront before she looked up and their matching sea green eyes met.

"I promise Finn because you give me a reason to keep going too and make me a better person as well."


	20. Chapter 20

**Though the truth may vary**

**This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**

Normally after a long day of hunting and working as the cashier at Peeta's bakery, Katniss was not in the mood to wait at the train station for hours on end awaiting the arrival of a train with a certain someone aboard. However the huntress didn't mind spending her time here, she hasn't seen the person coming on the train in a long, LONG, two weeks and was dying to see him again. Glancing down at the golden band and the engagement ring on her left hand, the twenty-five year old smiled thinking only of Peeta and how he was coming home today.

The baker had received a letter a few weeks ago, one that was currently worn after having been folded many times and now shoved unceremoniously in one of Katniss' hunting jackets with its many pockets, from Beetee and her mother. Between the two of them, the mechanical and medical minds of their time, they believed that they had created a cure for his hijacked memories and flashbacks. For Peeta, this was the best news he had received since his wife had finally said yes when he proposed to her and then "I do" on their wedding day five years past. These memories and flashbacks had been plaguing him for years now and were a product of the Capitol's most painful form of torture, using a powerful hallucinogenic found in their genetically modified wasps known as Tracker Jackers and then warping the memories of the tortured prisoner so that their loved ones were vilified to the point of them hating all those that they had formerly loved. Peeta had been one of the few victims who had overcome the memories to the point of being able to essentially return to the man he had been with the exception of a few episodes every once in a while when the flashbacks seeped past his defenses. In the end, he was able to overcome them with the help of his wife but he still wanted them to go away for good never to return.

For the cure, they referred to it as S.H.I.P which stood for Stopping Hijacked memories In Peeta, was in its first stages and needed to be tried a few times to ensure its effectiveness so her husband had to travel down to their labs in what was District 3. Peeta was quite fine with the time as he was determined for the memories just to go but for Katniss, who rarely spent a night away from him if she could help it, it was far too long. While he was gone she'd had nightmares nearly every night and good sleep had become a bit of a luxury only gained when she took a nap in the warm afternoons in Prim's memorial primrose garden or when she slept in one of Peeta's old shirts and in his art room. Lately though it had been rainy and too cold to sleep in the art room, which lacked a heater to preserve the quality of the art at Peeta's insistence, so she hadn't slept well and was desperate for her husband's company.

A train whistle awoke her from her thoughts and Katniss turned hopefully to look down the track and caught sight of the silver bullet train that she had been waiting for. Glancing down at her watch she grinned despite herself, as per usual it was right on schedule. The brakes of the old locomotive screeched to a halt as the engineer applied the brakes quickly and with what she assumed was a sigh of relief likely enough as this was the end of the line for him and he got to take a break before his next shift the next day. By now, despite it only being 5 o'clock, the sun had already gone down and the artificial lights glared brightly around her and only flickering when the train doors opened. The first person out of the train was a grinning twenty-five year old with blond curls, a huge smile that could charm the mockingjays out of trees, and the biggest blue eyes that she had ever seen. Currently those eyes were darting about as he looked for her and in response she held back a chuckle and waved. Catching her gray Seam eyes and her tan hand waving to him, the baker grinned even wider and rushed over to her with his worn suitcase banging the side of his good leg.

"KATNISS!" He yelled at the top of his lungs as he practically jumped up and down with excitement and pulled her into a bear hug dropping his suitcase in the process. Laughing the woman returned the hug and grinned as she felt his warm arms wrap around her and she felt, for the first time in the past two weeks, completely safe and at home.

"Peeta! I've missed you so much!" She replied with her own grin as he pulled away and took in his wife whom he hadn't seen in two weeks. Within two seconds he made note of the dark circles under her eyes and the slightly ragged braid that she had combed her hair into after taking a shower to get the majority of the flour and sugar out of it. "Yeah I haven't exactly slept well and have been pretty busy in your absence you might say. But was it worth it? Does it work?" Peeta eventually looked away from the dark circles that sent a pang through his chest, a sleep-deprived Katniss due to nightmares was one of the worst side effects of his trial and subsequent stay.

"To quote Beetee he said that '**Though the truth may vary** the results I have expected, this appears to be the SHIP experiment that has turned out the best and it is my belief that **this SHIP will carry our bodies safe to shore**, the bodies of those hijacked memories that is, in other words, are gone'." He paused allowing his words to sink in for a moment and watched as a grin spread across his wife's face before continuing with a broad grin that was almost childish in nature. "I'm free!"

"Completely free?"

"Haven't felt freer before in my life!" The baker replied to the huntress' question and she grinned in response.

"I'm so glad that your free, how about a celebratory dinner with Haymitch and Effie? I believe she's in town too if you'd like." Katniss sounded absolutely exhausted even as she said this and though Peeta knew that she was overjoyed at the hijacked memories finally being gone, she was way too tired for such an event but would put herself through it if it made him happy. Hurting herself and pushing herself to that point wasn't the way to happiness for him and he slipped a gloved hand in hers with a smile and pressed a light kiss to her cheek.

"That sounds nice but Effie will be in town until next week and you look exhausted. How about we have a nice dinner at home and then go to bed early?" He suggested instead and Katniss smiled in response, she wasn't one to admit that she was too exhausted for anything because she thought that might be seen as a show of weakness but since he had suggested another offer that didn't force her to put on a façade she could not have been happier.

"Sounds perfectly brilliant to me." She replied with a grin and the man grinned back before picking his luggage back up, without letting go of her hand, and the couple walked slowly back to their house a few streets up and over from the newer train station. Upon reaching the house the woman unlocked the door and the man followed her inside before he let go of her hand after a parting kiss, tossed his bag and winter coat on the sofa and headed to the kitchen to heat up whatever leftovers were in the fridge and the fresh loaf of bread that he knew she had brought home from the bakery earlier that day and had grown cold in the winter weather. The meal in total took less than ten minutes to make but even that amount of time was enough to leave Katniss asleep and curled up on the couch wearing her olive green turtleneck, dark gray jeans, and just a pair of black socks with the brown hunting boots that had been covering them on the floor beside her.

"Katniss? You hungry?" He asked the sleeping figure who awoke with sleep in her gray eyes and a bewildered smile on her face.

"It was good to hear your voice." Her murmured, half-awake response made him grin as he helped her up into a sitting position and passed her a bowl of soup with a loaf of bread balanced precariously and held in place by the spoon in it. Plopping down beside her, he picked up his matching meal and dug in with a relish but only after taking the time to wrap an arm around her shoulders and pull her up next to him as she giggled in response. She too ate her meal quickly before she again started to nod off against his shoulder and he grinned at his sleepy wife with love brimming in his sapphire blue eyes.

"Let's leave these dishes for tomorrow and go get some rest alright?" Peeta offered placing his bowl next to hers on the table and picking her up gently in his arms. Carrying her up the stairs bridal style he felt her relax and looked down to see her smiling up at him. When he placed her on the bed she crawled under the covers clothes and all causing him to laugh quietly to himself as he pulled off his shoes, belt and the turtleneck sweater he had on. Crawling into bed beside her he wrapped his arms around her form, pulled her close even as she squirmed closer to the warmth and safety of his embrace, and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"I'm glad your home." She whispered into the darkness and he grinned finding her lips and kissing them lightly.

"I am too, I love you Katniss."

"Love you too Peeta."


	21. Chapter 21

**Though the truth may vary**

**This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**

"Finn?" Annie whimpered from where she lay curled up in a ball with her hands clamped over her ears and her sea green eyes. Her voice, though always quiet and soft, was filled with fear of the paralyzing sort that was undoubtedly caused by the nightmare that she had finally managed to wake up from. In it she'd been all alone and that in and of itself was not the problem, it was why she was all alone that was. President Snow had killed all of her loved ones and taped her eyes open and tied her up so that she was forced to watch as the man cackled and killed them with their own weapons. Watching with unblinking and dry sea green eyes, she had seen Peeta with a knife in his back, Katniss go down with a feathered arrow protruding from her heart, Johanna with an axe stuck deep in her back, Remy with a knife in his chest and tied up in a knot, her parents both poisoned, and her Finn was last with his own trident flung at him by a giggling Snow as he and she screamed in shared pain.

"Annie!" Finnick exclaimed and was at her side in a moment, this is what he got for leaving her side for even a moment to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. Touching her bare shoulder almost reverently, the twenty-two year old whirled around and caught sight of her shirtless husband staring at her with concern in his sea green eyes. "Are you okay?" Without answering the woman launched herself into his arms and the couple toppled to the floor with Finnick's body cushioning her fall slightly before he sat up, clearly not hurt, and she crawled into his lap looking like a little girl wearing a over-sized tank top and nondescript gray shorts.

"Nightmare." She finally managed to stammer out after finding comfort in his arms and allowing the tears to flow from her sea green eyes and the shudders she'd been holding back wracked her thin form. "Everyone was dead." Her voice croaked out when she calmed enough to get the words out and Finn sighed sadly when he recognized the nightmare she was talking about. He knew that that specific nightmare was one that every single victor experienced, including Jo no matter how many times she claimed to not care, and that it wasn't ever going to go away no matter how hard one fought against it. The twenty-four year old had experienced the same dream himself and had seen Peeta, Katniss, Jo, Mako, Reese (his mom), Maverick (his father), little Remy, and her die so many times that it wasn't even funny. Once or twice it had been his trident sticking out of their chests and it was he who had thrown the fatal shot as well. Those were most definitely the worst, he had determined long ago and still believed it to be true as it wasn't just watching them die, it was you being the villain that ended their existence.

"Hey now, easy girl. You're alright now, I've got you, and it was only a dream. Not real." He murmured in her ear and attempted to console her but with his heart going a thousand miles an hour at the mere memories of such nightmares, it was rather difficult to make it believable. Keeping one arm wrapped around the girl, he ran a hand (that took all his concentration to keep from trembling) through her sweaty dark curls and felt her move closer to his body heat and the comfort of his presence.

"It felt so real though," She managed after a minute or two of the calming feel of his hand untangling the knots her hair had twisted into and breathing in his unique smell of salt and sun despite him being kept away for so long from both his favorite things. Wrapping her arms tighter around his middle, to the point of it almost being a death grip, and sighing, the girl took a deep breath to steady herself even more before continuing. "You died Finn, right in front of me. Your trident and Snow, and oh the blood, there was so much blood everywhere and it was all I could see as I screamed and screamed and heard you screaming too while you still could." Her tears returned then and he could feel them as the cold droplets of water hit his bare skin but the physical discomfort flew far from his mind as he realized what he needed to do, what she needed him to do for her as well as himself.

"I'm not dead yet Annie, and these, as you can tell, aren't a dead man's words." The man pointed out with a fake smile that, as per usual, did not quite reach his sea green eyes and the woman caught this as she calmed enough to look up at him again with her own sea green eyes still wide and brimming with unshed tears. "If you need to, or want to, check for scars on my back you're welcome to but you won't find any there of the sort caused by Snow with MY trident." To his surprise, well not really she liked to be certain of what was real and not real, the woman nodded and he complied by letting go and obediently turning around so that her light hands could examine his back. Starting at his shoulders she worked her way down touching each and every scar that stood out on the tan expanse that was his lean and strong back.

"What's this one from?" She asked touching the crescent shaped mark on his shoulder and he knew that this was how it was going to go down for each and every mark that populated and marred his lightly freckled skin.

"Fishing accident, Mako was unaware that my five-year old self was behind him and threw the line back. Needless to say the mark is still there." The rest of the marks continued in such a fashion until Annie ran out of scars and the older man, by a mere two years, turned back around to face her.

"All clear." She determined and he faked another grin before he watched as her dark brows furrowed in thought, "Doesn't make it feel any less real though."

"It's not real though and I would never go down that way without fighting harder and especially without freeing you first. But even if I was dead," Annie gasped at the very idea but he continued with only a very short pause following her interruption, this needed to be said before he lost his nerve. "Even if I was dead, I would never leave you. And **though the truth may vary** that, I wouldn't even dream of it. I promised you that I would stay with you all those years ago and that** this ship will carry out bodies safe to shore**." Pausing to catch his breath, he knew that she recognized that promise from when he'd saved her life after she'd won the games and gotten himself sick just to ensure that she was safe and that she knew it, "I don't make promises I can't keep, do I Annie Odair?" The twenty-two year old smiled slightly at her new name and shook her head as she looked down at the simple golden band that graced her left ring finger.

"No and I know you wouldn't, promises mean so much to you." His wife pointed out with a smile as she wrapped her arms around him again in an embrace that he gladly returned as he pressed his lips to her forehead lightly.

"Good, now can we go back to sleep my sweet Annie?" Her husband asked as he moved one of his hands to rub one of his sea green eyes, run a hand through his sleep tousled bronze curls, and stifle a yawn. "It is only two in the morning, little too early to get up if I might say so myself." He tried to revitalize his joking tone which didn't really work and he ended up just being grateful that Annie wrote it off to his exhaustion and nodded as she stood up and offered him a hand which he took gladly in his larger and tanner grip. Standing up beside her, the two walked back to their nondescript gray bed in their assigned room in District 13 and she crawled under the covers. Pausing only to stretch his sore leg and back muscles from their earlier tumble, Finnick followed her example and wrapped his arms around her familiar form.

"Promise to keep the nightmares away?" She asked as she rolled over so that their bodies were facing each other and she could meet his sea green eyes with her own.

"Promise." He replied and pressed his lips to hers in a short but passionate kiss that she returned and smiled after he pulled away. Closing her eyes she felt his familiar hand still cupping her cheek and she finally relaxed. As her breathing slowed and she returned to the world of unconsciousness he smiled at his wife's sleeping form and reached forward to brush away a rogue strand of hair that had fallen in front of her closed eyes. In sleep, he decided, she was gorgeous as the worries and memories went away and left her face looking calm and young. It was the face that Finn loved seeing the first thing when he woke and the last when he went to sleep, but mostly it was the face of the person he needed to protect the most. He had failed his parents, Mako, her brother, her parents and little Remy, but he was determined not to fail her and break the promises that he had made to keep her safe. Closing his own troubled eyes, he began to fall asleep but not before he breathed out the promise that he was most determined to keep, "I promise to protect you in this world and the next."

**Almost done! Only one more to go! Thank you for your support thus far and I hope you enjoy this chapter and the final one (coming tomorrow I promise, cross my heart and hope to shoot)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Though the truth may vary**

**This ship will carry our bodies safe to shore**

"Welcome Annie Cresta Odair to your new home." Peeta announced in a teasing tone as he spread out one hand and made a gesture to the landscape before turning back around and looking at Annie, the newest edition to the new world. The quartet, which included Annie, Finnick, Peeta, and Katniss, stepped off the boat as Annie looked at the world with her sea green eyes wide with wonder as she tried to take it all in. It was a paradise of epic proportions, she realized, that had everything anybody would ever want or need. From the beach where they stood with the water lapping playfully up at their feet, to the mountains she could see in the distance, along with the woods, plains, and the town that resided between the two larger landmarks. Everything looked to be of her old world of the living, but somehow better like the colors gleamed brighter or something and everything looked more real than they had in the land of the living.

"It's amazing!" She finally managed as she forced herself to rip her eyes away and looked at the similar sea green eyes of her husband beside her. "How did you ever manage to pull yourself away from here to come back to the old world?"

"You were there and you needed me to be there with you. I also promised to be there and I'd never break a promise as important or monumental as that one." Finnick pointed out and squeezed her smaller hand in his with a smile that reached his eyes, a feat that was mostly not seen in the old world except by those he loved like his family, friends like Peeta, Katniss, and Jo, and, of course, her.

"You don't break any promises ever, even those as silly as promising to give Remy a piggy back ride for his birthday every year. At his twelfth birthday you just about broke your back trying to keep that promise you silly goose." She pointed out with a laugh and heard Katniss and Peeta chuckling in front of them.

"That's 'cause he told me to jump on and took a step forward before we both realized my shoe was caught on the stairwell so he tripped as I fell and we both went down." Remy pointed out appearing behind them with Sanders and Mags by his side. If she hadn't known that Mags was nearly forty years his elder, she would have thought that they were siblings. What had been the elderly victor with her gray hair looking thin and her voice weak and incomprehensible had become the young girl she'd been with her dirty blonde hair thick and with a light curl and the same dark brown eyes that Sanders has.

"See? I have a witness!" Finnick yelled and gave Remy a high five while the boy, and the rest of the group for that matter, chuckled.

"A witness to testify that you are a self-obsessed jerk?" Johanna asked as she popped up behind Sanders, who didn't blink one of his dark brown eyes in response, while Finn nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Hey be nice you too." Katniss chastised them with a smile before turning to Annie with a grin, "**Though the truth may vary** this, these two have become a lot better since coming here." The new arrival chuckled along with the huntress as she remembered how the two friends had been back in the other world.

"Trust me, I can tell!" The two women grinned at each other as Katniss looped an arm through hers and continued to hold Peeta's in her other. Finnick looped an arm around Annie's shoulders and grinned at the two best friends. "So what is there to do in this paradise?"

"Well…" Katniss began before she was interrupted by Finnick as he nearly bounced up and down with excitement at all the ideas.

"Anything you want!" He exclaimed with a smile that met his sea green eyes again even as Katniss Seam gray eyes glared at him, "The world is ours and we have all the time in the world!" Looking around again she couldn't help but focus on the calm and peace that filled her rather than the opportunities for activity. Glancing over at Katniss and Peeta, both of whom had dealt with their inner demons, holding hands with the later of the two speaking with his other hand animatedly while she smiled calmly and focused all her attention on him, Annie realized that everyone felt it. A sort of release, that was it, that was what made this world make life look like a slightly botched and lesser imitation of what was seen here. This place was so tranquil and peaceful and right, she realized as she watched Finnick wearing a smile that reached his eyes and Mags and Sanders both looking free and relaxed, it made everyone calm.

"You don't have to do it all in one day." Remy pointed out with a grin as he floated around Finn's side and appeared in front of her. Smiling back at her brother she reached out her free hand and ruffled his light brown hair.

"Thanks Remy." He grinned back at her and she realized that she had missed him more than words could say, he was her little brother and he had been someone she had wanted to protect more than anything else. Maybe she could see why Finn got that protective heroic streak, it happened when you least expected it and it was always for those you loved and who needed you most. "I'm sorry for losing you."

"Oh Ann, there's nothing you could have done to save me. I know that, and I know you do too. The Capitol killed me, not you failing to protect me." The twelve-year old smiled at her and she smiled back. Finnick grinned along with them as he remembered when Remy had had to tell him the same thing when he got here.

"How about a boat ride?" Sanders suggested with a smile, it was the first time she'd heard him speak since Marcus had separated his head from the rest of his body. It had definitely not been a pretty ending and had haunted her memories for years, having the boy here in front of her made it feel as though it had never happened. Annie nodded and untangled herself from Finnick's grip while Katniss let go as the huntress knew exactly what she was going to do. Stepping towards the forever fifteen year old, she hugged the boy with the bright red hair, tan skin, and dark brown eyes to her slender form.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't save you either." The teen smiled at the dark haired and sea green eyed woman in front of her and shook his head.

"No apology needed Annie, you tried your best. I got to go home a little earlier that's all but in time we all arrive here, in the end **this ship will carry our bodies safe to shore** just at different times." She grinned at him and pulled him close again for he was right, as always. Even back in the world of the living, he'd always been right about what to do and what to say especially in school or while fishing; the Games had been the first and last time he'd been wrong, to both their regrets.

"Thank you Sanders and you're right that boat ride sounds like a great idea. Want to come, Katniss? Peeta?" Glancing at the two, Annie waited to hear their answers and the two paused to give each other a knowing look before responding.

"I think we'll pass, no offense meant to your idea at all Sanders," The boy nodded as Peeta paused for once trying to find the words and instead Katniss interjected with the words he was clearly looking for.

"We just know that you need to catch up with those you haven't seen in so long like Remy, Sanders, Mags, and Finnick. We wouldn't want to impose on that is what Peeta, I believe, is getting at." Peeta nodded as did Jo who, used to refuse to agree with any idea especially one of Katniss'. Looking back, Annie saw Jo lock eyes with a boy who had dark red hair to the point of it being nearly brown and bright blue eyes; no wonder Jo had never married and pretended not to care for others, the boy she'd loved had died, probably been killed along with her family to get her to be part of the Capitol's never-ending Game. The woman nodded and gave each of them a hug before pulling away to give them a pointed look with her sea green eyes.

"It's no problem, but we will catch up soon, promise?" Finnick smiled at the last word and Jo held back a groan.

"We promise." Peeta and Katniss said in time, after years of marriage the two spoke in sync without even thinking about it. They knew each other's thoughts and always would, even when Peeta had still been hijacked, he knew and that knowing only increased for them both after Beetee and Mrs. Everdeen had fixed his memories.

"Jo?" Annie prompted and the warrior woman sighed closing her golden eyes as if she was surrendering to the inevitable. Who knew that Jo could be so dramatic?

"Alright already, I promise." She grinned and stepped away as the group from District 4 walked off laughing to go on a boat ride. Annie and Finnick raised their hands as they walked away and the trio left standing on the dock returned the gesture. Jo turned to the two who nodded before the District 7 girl walked over to where the boy was waiting with a grin that was meant just for her. Peeta looped an arm around Katniss' waist and she leaned closer to him laying her head on his shoulder. Together they watched the sunset fading with the bright oranges fluttering around amongst the yellow and gold.

"Orange is your favorite color." Katniss whispered and the boy chuckled good naturedly at her comment.

"You don't forget anything, do you?" The huntress nodded in response to the baker's question as they watched the last light fade away and the lights on the dock flash on at the exact second full darkness hit the sky. Turning around, they caught sight of Prim braiding Rue's hair with Thresh watching the two girls with a bemused smile as he absent-mindedly whittled a piece of wood into the image of the fields he had worked all his life, and had nearly won the Games while living in them. Soon Haymitch appeared holding the hand of Maysilee and the pair looked happier than they had ever seen them.

"Annie's right, even years after getting here, it is great to finally be home." Looking over at his wife as she spoke he smiled lovingly, it wouldn't have been home without her here and he knew it would have been the same for her if he hadn't been here. Not only were they lucky to have passed away in their sleep but also for not having to live for a second without the other for both their hearts had stopped at the same time with their arms around the other proving that, like Annie and Finnick, not even death would do them part. Glancing over at him she knew exactly what he was thinking, how it wouldn't be home without her, but allowed him to voice his opinion rather than speaking it for him.

"You're my home and always will be." He said and she nodded having already knowing what he was going to say, just as he knew her response.

"And you're mine, just like Finnick is for Annie. Thank you for staying with me." Pulling her close he pressed a light kiss to her lips before he looked deep in her gray eyes with his piercing blue ones speaking the same response he always had, the response that had become a promise just like the ones Finnick would make and die rather than break.

"Always."

**Thank you all for reading and enjoying. I promised it would be done before Christmas and like Finnick I don't break promises. The length of this one is a little longer as I wanted to tie up the loose ends for so many characters but could only, of course, get to a few. Some were necessary (like Katniss/Peeta, Johanna/OC, and Finnick/Annie along with Remy and Sanders) and some weren't as much so but were some of my other favorite characters like Haymitch/Maysilee, or Rue and Prim while some, well Thresh, was because one of my best friends would hate me if I didn't include his favorite. Thanks again for everything, you guys are awesome. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Kwanza, Happy belated Hannukah, Happy Boxing Days, and Happy Holidays to any others that slipped my mind. If you have any ideas for another fanfic or songfic please let me know and I'll be delighted to pen a tale for you. Until next time then dear readers. **


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